After 33 years of helping generations of students build something as simple as a wooden box to something as significant as a career in the construction trades, Tyrone Area High School carpentry teacher Dan Plummer is set to retire at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

Many students over the years have found a home in Plummer’s shop, where they have made lifelong friendships and learned lifelong skills.

Health tech teacher Christie Taylor, who has known Plummer for all 22 years she’s taught at TAHS, calls him “a dedicated educator who believes wholeheartedly in his work.”

“The transformation he fosters, from students entering high school with little knowledge of carpentry to graduating with the skills to build or renovate a home, is truly immeasurable,” Taylor added.

Plummer grew up north of Pittsburgh in Mercer, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Mercer Area High School in 1986.

He began building carpentry skills in high school at the Mercer County Vo-Tech, much like many of his own students would later do in Tyrone. He was inspired to go into secondary education by his own experience as a student in a career and technology program.

“I was interested in a career that allows for family. I am very family-oriented,” Plummer said. “Teaching was a good fit.”

After high school, Plummer attended Penn State University and majored in career and technology education with a focus on carpentry.

His introduction to Tyrone came in 1989 when he completed his student teaching at Tyrone Area High School.

After earning his degree from Penn State in 1990, Plummer worked for three years as a counselor at Specialized Treatment Services in Mercer County.

However, when a carpentry teaching position opened at Tyrone Area High School, Plummer got the job and began his teaching career in 1993.

Since then, he has seen thousands of students pass through his shop, and hundreds develop the skills necessary to begin their careers in the construction industry.

Tyrone biology teacher Beth Cannistraci respects the quality of Plummer’s instruction so much that she trusted several of his former students to work on her own home.

“I can personally vouch for the craftsmanship from his students, as some of them have done work professionally on my house,” Cannistraci said.

Former carpentry shop assistant Bob Wilson worked with Plummer for 16 years and called him a leader and mentor to many generations of Tyrone students.

“He worked with the students to give them an incentive to get their work done and to keep their grades up. If any student needed help in any way, Mr. Plummer would be there to help them,” Wilson said.

Art teacher Eric Feather’s classroom has been next to Plummer’s for all of his 27 years at TAHS, so he has also seen Plummer’s interactions with students firsthand.

“Mr. Plummer has always had a very focused approach with clear goals for his students. He has an engaging personality, connects well with students, and earns their respect through his experience, knowledge, and leadership in the classroom,” Feather said.

As a member of the CTC department, Taylor says that Plummer’s commitment is to all areas of Career and Technical Education, not just carpentry.

“Mr. Plummer deeply believes in the power of Career and Technical Education. Throughout his career, he has seen it change and improve the lives of countless students, both in his classroom and across many CTE fields,” Taylor said.

Students and faculty both said that Plummer teaches more than just career skills, and his concern for students’ well-being goes far beyond academics.

“I always felt he would have been a good guidance counselor or a student advisor,” Wilson said.

His students love being in the shop, and many of the seniors have been in the carpentry program for all four years of high school.

“He’s not just a teacher, he’s also like a friend to his students. He has a relationship with each student,” senior Corey Gehlman said.

Students love to joke with him and said they will always remember him for playing “the same five songs over and over in the shop” and for “Tater Pie around Thanksgiving,” Gehlman added.

Plummer said that while he has had many memorable moments in his career, his most meaningful experience as an educator was having the opportunity to teach all three of his children at some point during their high school careers.

Plummer has been in charge of many large-scale projects, including four house projects, the last of which was completed in 2020, and their current project, a “tiny house” that was built on site at TAHS and will be moved by truck to its permanent home whenever it is completed and sold.

On the house projects, as well as the tiny house projects, students in his classes did most of the work, framing and finishing them.

“I learned drywalling and ceiling construction from working on the tiny home. It helped me develop skills required to build my own house from the ground up,” junior Tytus Novak said.

“It’s been a good learning experience for the students. It provides them with an opportunity for real working experience and working together as a team,” Plummer told the Eagle Eye back in 2019 when his last house project was underway.

Plummer’s students have recently built several elevated hunting blinds, which will be sold to the public.

“Mr. Plummer has shown us the building blocks of the carpentry world, and that has allowed us to use those skills outside the classroom to build various projects,” junior Caleb Posnett said.

Over the years, Plummer also took students to many Lezzer Lumber Appreciation Dinners and Home Shows to learn more about the construction trades, as well as on field trips to places like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.

Wilson and Plummer have kept in close contact with many of their former students who have gone on to careers in the construction industry. Some have even gone into business for themselves.

“At one time, Dan did a survey of past students, and about 80% of our kids were in the construction trade,” Wilson said.

Plummer mentioned former students Randy Carper, David Black, Brandon Loose, Brandon Maceno, Drew Karlson, and Levi Swogger as examples of those who have gone on to successful careers in construction or carpentry.

Drew Karlson owns DAK Masonry in Tyrone and credits Plummer with teaching him the skills he needed.

“Mr. Plummer taught me my foundational skills to go out and have the confidence to enter the workforce and work beside experienced tradesmen,” Karlson said.

Cannistraci has also witnessed the positive impact Plummer has had on his students.

“Mr. Plummer has left a legacy at TAHS,” Cannistraci said. “Not only has he taught kids valuable carpentry skills, but many of his former students have their own successful construction businesses.”

In addition to running the carpentry program at TAHS, Plummer has also been involved in coaching and several other student activities.

Plummer served as the junior high head football coach and as an assistant to the varsity program.

He has been the middle and high school ski club adviser for many years, taking students to Blue Knob and as far away as Vermont for ski trips.

He has also been involved with the local chapter of the teachers’ union, holding several leadership positions and helping to negotiate contracts for the teachers in the district.

Despite all of these commitments, Plummer was never too busy to help other teachers with projects.

Feather said that Plummer was always willing to lend a hand with work on sets for the musical or other projects that required his carpentry skills.

He also helped high school science teacher Brian Gruber develop his own woodshop class.

“He was a big help when I started teaching woodshop,” Gruber said. “He was always willing to provide advice for any new project I was attempting.”

Plummer said that he hopes people will remember him as determined and dedicated to the students, the carpentry program, the CTE department, and its successes in the past, present, and future.

Many of the faculty at TAHS, especially those in the CTC wing, will miss seeing him in the halls and the faculty lunchroom every day.

“I’ll especially miss the jokes, laughter, and conversations we shared at lunch in the vocational wing,” Feather said. “And of course, I’ll never forget his famous yummy kielbasa dish at our covered-dish lunches.”

Gruber said he will miss Plummer’s loud, friendly voice and his end-of-day whistling.

“The hallways are going to feel far too quiet without him. And of course, someone is going to have to track down the secret to that incredible, yummy kielbasa,” Gruber said.

“I will always consider him a very good friend,” Feather said. “He will be greatly missed at Tyrone High School. The impact he has had on the school and the community is significant, and I think it’s something that will be appreciated even more after his retirement.”

Plummer said he is looking forward to a fun and rewarding retirement full of relaxation and time spent with family and friends.

“It will allow me to focus on what matters to me most in my life,” Plummer said.

This story was originally published on Tyrone Eagle Eye News on May 13, 2026.