Erpel “Erp” Garrett (1935-2026)

It is with great sorrow that we report the passing of Erp Garrett, our longtime school audiologist from 1962 to 2000, in February 2026.  He was 90.  He stayed in a living-assisted home in Banning for the last few years of his life.

Erp arrived at CSDR as a new teacher from Illinois, where Dan Leinbach and Lynn Davidson had studied in the same teacher-training program. Erp was assigned to teach in JrHS.  He soon began part-time extra duty evaluating students’ hearing thresholds after school.  Around 1965, Erp assumed the full-time hearing assessment position for 500 students of all grades.   He remained with the job he loved until he retired in 2000 with 38 years.

The Class of 1976 dedicated its yearbook to two CSDR employees for their outstanding performance: Erp Garrett and Sarah Aberthany, who taught for 43 years from 1938 to 1976 at NJSD and CSDR.

From 1994 to 2000, I had the opportunity to sit with Erp 3-4 times a week for lunch in the campus dining room.  At the time, only four staff members ate regularly in the small staff dining room in the back of the large cafeteria: Erp, Bummy, Dee Wells and me.  We paid $2.50 (a good deal) for a delicious meal cooked from scratch, unlike today.  Erp spun many interesting tales about what he saw in the early years at CSDR.

I heard this story over and over from Erp about what Dr. Brill had told him in the Brill hall. They both had offices in the Brill Building. During his 26 years as the site superintendent, Dr Brill handled different problems that came to his desk. 

Dr Brill made a quote to himself and his colleagues: “This, too, shall pass.”This adage is a comforting reminder that hardships are temporary and will change for the better.

Erp recalled that in the early years, he called the academic department and asked the secretary to send a student to the audiology office for a hearing evaluation.  The student walked alone to the office and back to the classroom.  Later on, Erp started driving his orange cart to pick up a student from the classroom and return him there.

In my long volunteer career as a museum curator, I have many stories about how we salvaged old things for the museum. Erp’s gift is probably the strangest story. I asked Erp if I could look around in his audiology office for old things. He said sure. Inside an acoustic room, I spotted an old vacuum cleaner behind the door. Erp thought I was teasing him. I made him to take a look at it for himself. He was shocked and truthfully said he had never seen it before after 30 years working in the same office. He had no idea where it came from. We agreed the cleaner is probably from the 1950s or the early 1960s. Needless to say, we are thrilled to have it for an interesting exhibit item.

We got a deluxe box of hearing aids from the 1980s. Thank you, Erp.

When Erp was not with a student for assessment, he spent time fixing a hearing aid for free and typing IEP reports.  He also loaned hearing aids to needy students.  He said the school accepted students for admission largely based on their hearing thresholds, ranging from moderate-severe-profound to total deafness. Most students had profound deafness.

Erp also remembered that almost all students wore hearing aids from the Lower School through the High School. His observation became less and less true each passing decade.  Before Erp retired in 2000, he observed that 75% of elementary students, 50% of middle school students and 25% of high school students wore hearing aids.  In 2000, only five students had cochlear implants.

Erp had friends all over the campus. He particularly enjoyed working with Arthur Montoya, deaf, who conducted psymetrics assessment on admitting and graduating students. They worked together for opening and closing student cases as well as IEPs.

In the staff dining room, Erp broke the news to me that he was going to retire in June 2000.  I asked him if he could stay for two more years to reach a 40-year milestone, a remarkable feat for CSDR and the CalPERS retirement system with a maximum 80% cap.  He responded “Ugh, 38 years is enough. I am ready to go”. I left it at our loss.

Kevin Struxness, ‘76, MA

Editor, CSDR Old Times

24 March 2026

I had the honor to sit with two outstanding school employees with long tenure. At left is Science Teacher Stan Menson, with 37 years of service and 10 years of sub-teaching from 1955 to 2002. At right is Erp Garrett served 38 years as an audiologist, retiring in 2000. Both are deceased and remain in the memories of the thousands of alumni.