At last summer’s Association of Woodworking and Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS) show in Las Vegas, the student design competition featured work from roughly two dozen high-school woodworkers. Half of them were students of one man — Keith Yow.

Yow, a tireless instructor who occasionally stocks his school’s woodshop with lumber felled on his own property, was named woodworking teacher of the year for 2005 by WoodLINKS USA. The award is sponsored by WoodLINKS, The Taunton Press, Laguna Tools, Delta Machinery, and Porter-Cable.

Yow’s students at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina, told the selection committee that he often opens the school woodshop an hour before school begins and stays until 9 p.m. or later so students can work on projects. “My style of teaching is up and active and in the shop,” Yow said.

In addition to woodworking, Yow’s students wrote that they learned lessons in “integrity and honesty,” diligence, and patience. In preparing for the Las Vegas show, “we often spent our Saturdays in his shop, ordering pizza for lunch or dinner and then going back to work,” wrote Meredith Smith. “It was more than a class; it turned into an experience, at times as consuming and unifying as any of my sports.”

The nonprofit WoodLINKS USA was started in 1998 by woodworking manufacturers and educators. Among the group’s goals is to foster high-school woodworking programs throughout the country. More information is available online at www.woodlinks.com.

Photos: Cathy Maready (portrait); Keith Yow (top)

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