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POKIN AROUND: From patrolling the streets, to teaching fine arts
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| ROY SYKES PHOTO -- Mike Oehmke, in his classroom, followed his passion for art. | ||
Mike Oehmke loves his job. But don't get him wrong, he loved his old job, too.
Oehmke, 40, teaches art at Fort Zumwalt West High School. He left a 13-year career as a police officer, including 11 years in St. Peters, to pursue what - when all is said and done - he really wanted to do.
He made the transition five years ago, thinking it was probably now or never.
He remembers thinking, "I'm not a spring chicken anymore."
As a boy, Oehmke had a gift for painting and sketching. In fact, in high school he was voted most artistic. He attended William Jewell College in Liberty on an art scholarship. But after his sophomore year, although he was doing well, he ran out of funds.
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What would he do?
He considered police work. And it wasn't because he has family members who are cops. He doesn't. Instead, he figured he had just enough money for the police academy and could graduate a lot faster than if he continued at college.
For two years he was a campus officer at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. In St. Peters he was the first school resource officer at Francis Howell North High School.
In 1998, Oehmke and two other St. Peters officers were lauded for entering a burning trailer in the Eldorado Estates mobile home park to rescue a man who, at one point, told them to save themselves and flee. The man, Oehmke says, weighed about 800 pounds, and when they managed to get him out the door the steps collapsed.
"It took eight people to lift him into the ambulance on a tarp," Oehmke recalls.
Oehmke says his fellow officers probably knew him more for his encyclopaedic knowledge of sports than for his artistic abilities.
Oehmke says he's fortunate he never had to discharge his firearm in the line of duty and was never shot at. That doesn't mean his wife Kelly wasn't concerned.
"Every time he left I worried whether he would return or that I would get a call that he had been in an accident," she says. "He kept a lot of what happened to himself, not wanting to worry me."
Oehmke says safety, at least in his mind, was not behind the career change. It was his love of art.
"It was a question of what do you really, really enjoy, and that was it - art," he says.
His life as a police officer, including frequent shift changes, not only took time from his art, he says, but took time from his family.
The Oehmkes have two daughters - Gabrielle, 12, and Melina, 9. They reside in O'Fallon. As a teacher, Oehmke has the time to help coach Melina's select soccer team.
Oehmke was hired by West Principal Neil Berry, who knew Oehmke from their days at Francis Howell North, where Berry once taught English.
"He left his career because of his desire to work with kids in a greater capacity," Berry says.
The career change, at least initially, meant a 40 percent decrease in salary.
Oehmke joined the ranks of family members who teach, including his wife, who teaches at Twin Chimneys Elementary School, as well as his sister and sister-in-law.
As an art teacher, he says, he has the time - particularly during the summer - to pursue his own art, mostly sketching and painting. He is working on a series of portraits of famous St. Louis Cardinals. His portrait of Albert Pujols is on display in the wine cellar at Pujols' restaurant, the Pujols 5 Westport Grill.
Oehmke says his intent has never been to sell his work. Typically, he gives it to friends and family. "It's something I do because I enjoy it."
In recent years, Oehmke has taught introduction to art, one of several classes students can take to fulfill a fine arts requirement.
Oehmke says he realizes not all his students are as passionate about art as he was in high school, or as passionate about art as he is today. He tries to provide the basics and enjoys the interaction.
Stefanie Holmes, a 17-year-old senior from Dardenne Prairie, is taking the class to meet the requirement. She's working on still-lifes and shading techniques.
"He just knows what high schoolers are interested in," she says. "Whatever project we're doing, he lets us kind of pick the theme of it.
"It's probably my favorite class," she says. "He makes everything so much fun."
Steve Pokin is a columnist for the Suburban Journals. He can be reached at spokin@yourjournal.com or by phone at 636-946-6111, ext. 239. An audio version of the column is on the Journal Web site, under videos, at suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/stcharles.
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