Former Student Remembers Tim Walz’s Kindness

The phones of political professionals continued to buzz and ring throughout Tuesday morning with the news that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would be Vice President Kamala Harris’s choice for her running mate. But the phones of countless former students of Mankato West High School were doing the same. Walz taught there for nine years, also coaching football and keeping the lunchroom in order, and he left behind ardent admirers who say his warmth, humor and commitment to reaching average and even struggling students made him stand out in that rural Minnesota environment.

“He’s the kind of guy who, if Norman Rockwell were still painting, would represent a typical Midwesterner,” says Noah Hobbs, a housing activist and high school baseball coach who was Walz’s sophomore in 2004.

Maybe above average. The version of Walz that Hobbs and other students portray shows someone who went above and beyond for young people. “I was a mediocre student, better at some subjects, worse at others, and he didn’t exclude underperformers.”

I found Hobbs when he posted on X:

(The first thing that caught my eye was his 2012 Bruce Springsteen “Wrecking Ball” tour T-shirt.)

Hobbs told me that Walz’s global geography class was initially challenging for him, but he recalled how Walz helped students earn extra credit by coming to class one day a week prepared to talk about the day’s news. “I had never read the newspaper beyond sports and comics, but I knew I had to dig deep. I had to come in with six or seven stories, because you couldn’t repeat what a classmate had used. And you had to be able to go beyond the headline and discuss it. It really helped broaden my world. Here was this guy, who had traveled all over the place” (Walz served in the National Guard for 25 years), “showing a path to success to kids in this rural, farming community.”

Walz ran for Congress and won that year, but the student and teacher stayed in touch. When the congressman returned to Mankato West to speak to Hobbs’s AP government class, the “habitually tardy” student received a warning from his teacher that he would fail the entire day if he was late. While running from a dentist appointment, he thought he could make it, but was locked out. But Walz saw him from the front of the room. “‘Some things never change,’” his former teacher said, opening the door. “I saved you a seat.” Hobbs told me they still speak twice a year.

Walz has a strong education policy record as governor. He has increased school funding, made college free for students whose families earn less than $80,000 a year, expanded pre-kindergarten programs by thousands of spots, and provided universal free school meals to students.

Hobbs, now 35, has repaid Walz’s faith in him with an eight-year stint as the director of strategy and policy for One Roof Community Housing, an affordable housing developer and service provider in Duluth. He has served three terms on the Duluth City Council and coaches the baseball team at Denfield High School. “He made it clear that you could have an opportunity to be in politics even if you didn’t get there,” he said. “He was a role model, for sure.”