People always say if you love your job, you never really work a day in your life. That couldn’t have been more true for Steve Cagle, for whom teaching was much more than his career. It was his calling.
“He never had the attitude that he was just showing up for work,” said his daughter and former student, Karen Cagle Coyle. “He thoroughly enjoyed his students and they enjoyed him. He was an awesome teacher.”
Teaching gave Cagle the ability to help shape the minds of high school students, and he made sure his lessons would extend far beyond the classrooms of Walton High School in Cobb County.
“He instilled values and work ethic into his students,” said Cagle’s wife, Lee Hitchcock Cagle, who is also a former teacher at Walton. “Some of his students went to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and they all took with them a lot of what he taught them about time management and how to work.”
William Steven Cagle, of Marietta, died Sunday from complications of liver cancer at Northside Hospital. He was 62. His body was cremated by H.M. Patterson and Son, Arlington Chapel, which was in charge of the arrangements. A memorial service is being held at 2 p.m. today at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Marietta.
Steve Cagle taught English and marketing at Walton for more than 30 years. In 1986, he earned the title of STAR Teacher. That is an honor, Lee Cagle said, because the student with the school’s highest SAT score picks one teacher among the entire staff. He retired in 2007 to begin working as a curriculum adviser for the Technical College System of Georgia.
While at Walton, he was in charge of the school’s marketing internship program, where he matched students up with marketing jobs in the community, said Lori Foltz, the school’s business education department chairwoman.
“He was dedicated to his students and his students loved him,” she said. “He did a fabulous job with students in the internship program, and he always did a good job” at the school.
In addition to coordinating the internship program, Cagle was the teacher adviser for Walton’s chapter of Distributive Education Clubs of America, an academic club for marketing education whose members travel to compete against other schools and counties.
During competitions, DECA members are given a marketing scenario and act out the ways they would handle situations in a business setting, Coyle said.
“He would help coach them in sales skills and presentation skills,” she said. “His students would always make it to state, and he had several national winners.”
According to those who knew him, Cagle’s people-loving personality made his teaching career seem like second nature. It was what he dedicated his life to, and it was where he truly excelled.
“He really enjoyed what he did,” Coyle added. “He was really good at teaching, and he was very unique and impacting in everything he did.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, Cagle is survived by his mother, Dorothy Schlosser Cagle of Acworth; another daughter, Ann Cagle Geer of Alpharetta; two sisters, Barbara Bridges of Acworth and Ann Fitzgerald of Acworth; one brother, Robert Cagle of Woodstock; and three grandchildren.
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