Mark Rash has more than 8,000 children.
Having served in education administration for more than 20 years, Rash has overseen at least 400 children each year.
“I think it is important to try to get to know each kid,” Rash said. “As a principal, it is important to know what is going on outside the building.
“It’s all about building relationships, and the key to being successful [at anything] is those relationships you built.
“You don’t do that by sitting in an office and letting them come see you.”
Rash, of East End, just finished his third year as assistant principal at Angie Grant Elementary School in Benton, but before that, he was the principal at East End Elementary School for 16 years.
“He was so involved with the community, and he was always talking to families,” Kimmie Williamson, a kindergarten teacher at East End, said of Rash. “He treated them like they were his family.
“He treated them like his own child, sister or mother. He treated everybody the same, even across the board.”
Williamson said she will never forget what Rash did for her and her husband, Brian, when she was first hired at East End.
“We didn’t have any family down here, and we were moving [into our house] after my first year teaching,” she said. “[Mark] offered to help us move.
“I knew right then and there he was more than an employer.”
Rash said that as a dad, you expect the same thing from students as you expect from your own children.
“Oftentimes, I would tell kids, ‘If I was your dad …,’ and I am kinda like their dad. I’ve had parents say they appreciate me being a father example for their children, and I feel blessed,” Rash said.
“But sometimes, you think it is a burden on your shoulder that someone is looking up to you to be their father figure,” Rash said.
“He absolutely cared about putting children first,” Williamson said.
Rash is originally from Sheridan, where his mom, Tommie, and dad, Roy, still live. He graduated from Sheridan High School in 1983 and earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Henderson State University in 1987.
“I was originally going to teach math, but one summer after having to take history of mathematics, that kind of put me over the edge, and I was done with that,” Rash said.
Between his sophomore and junior years of college, Rash said, he switched to elementary education.
“That cost me a couple of summers, and one semester, I had to take 21 hours,” he said. “It was brutal, but I was able to do it.”
He finished with a master’s degree in elementary administration in 1991.
Rash, who will turn 52 in August, has been married to his high school sweetheart, Tammy, for almost 30 years. They have three children: Mallory, 26, Jonathan, 23, and Mackenzie, 16.
“I think as a father you have to have your priorities straight,” Rash said. “It is important to put the Lord first. I can’t say I’ve always done that.
“It also means being the leader of the family. That doesn’t mean you make all the decisions, but you make them collaboratively with your wife and as a family.”
Rash said it is also important to set a good example, “but we all make mistakes.”
“I remember one time, when Mallory was younger, she said a bad word at school, and a teacher said, ‘Well, I wonder where she heard that from,’” Rash said. “I knew where she had heard that.
“Unfortunately, she had picked up that word. We still laugh about that.”
Rash was working as a principal in the Nashville School District, where Mallory was a student. She was in the middle of a game of duck, duck, goose, he recalled.
“She stopped to tie her shoe in the middle of the game, and when the chaser tagged her,” Rash said, that’s when she said the bad word. “But it’s a chasing game. Who stops to tie their shoe in a middle of a race game?”
Rash said the teacher had a blast with it.
“She wrote it up and said, ‘You need to talk to Mallory because she just used this word. Ha ha, and I wonder where she learned that from,’” Rash recalled. “’Maybe you need to call her parents and talk to them about their language.’”
He told Mallory that if she ever said that word again, she would get a paddling.
“It is funny now, but it wasn’t funny back then,” he said.
She is now married to Cole Elledge, and they have a 2-year-old daughter, Emory Bell. Mallory just accepted a job at Caldwell Elementary School in Benton. She was a first-grade teacher at Sheridan Elementary School.
“At one time, before my mom retired, we had three different generations teaching in the Sheridan School District,” Rash said. “It was kind of interesting.”
Rash said being a grandpa has been a real blessing.
“You still need to be a good example, but it is great to have a grandchild and be able to spoil them …,” he said. “It is fun to sit back and watch your son-in-law or son and just watch the dynamics of how things happen.”
He said the hard thing is to not butt in.
“It is a blessing,” Rash said. “It’s really been wonderful, when I go inside the door and she yells ‘Papi’ and runs up to me.
“I don’t remember any of my kids doing that. She is always happy to see me.”
Jonathan married his wife, Kayla, on May 20, and he works at Newton, Owen, Boyd and Smoke — a public accounting firm in White Hall.
“He tries to embarrass you anytime he has the chance,” Jonathan said of his dad. “He shows you tough love, and he is never afraid to go out of his way to do anything for you.”
Jonathan said he has a hard time watching Arkansas Razorback football games with his dad.
“He has this crazy scream that he always does when he goes to a football game,” Jonathan said, “but I can’t even watch games with him anymore because he is screaming and obnoxious.
“He sticks his tongue out and starts yelling at the TV.
“Half the time, he doesn’t know what he is yelling at, but he just starts yelling.”
Mackenzie will be a junior at Sheridan High School and is in the school band.
“We like to spend a lot of time at Lake Ouachita,” Rash said. “That’s the best thing about being a father — watching my kids grow up and be successful.”
Rash has been a member of Fairview Missionary Baptist Church in Hensley for 19 years. He serves as a deacon and teaches the men’s Sunday School class, and he and his wife are youth sponsors at the church.
“Last year, [the youth] went up to Northwest Arkansas and did a sports camp there,” he said. “This year, they are going to Heber Springs, at one of our sister churches.”
He said the sports camps are like Vacation Bible School but centered around a sport.
“To teach about the word of God through the sport,” he said.
This year’s camp will be at Libby Road Missionary Baptist Church beginning July 5.
“We normally have soccer, basketball and then a free game section with a bunch of different games,” Rash said. “Those are typically the rotations.”
Rash is also involved in the Southwest Little Rock Lions Club.
“Six years ago, we started a small community organization,” Rash said. “We helped start a community library and also talk to representatives about getting a red light at Sawmill and Arch Street.
“We were just a small group of community people that met once a month, but we no longer meet now.”
Rash also helps with the East End Sizzler 5K every year. His wife and daughters have both run in it, but Rash said he helps people track their times at the halfway mark.
“Every year I think about actually running, but I haven’t gotten there yet,” he said.
The 5K is a fundraiser for the Lions Club,which helps provide Christmas presents for the elementary students at Landmark and East End.
“I think it is important to give back to try to make the community better, especially with our kids,” Rash said. “We want them to make good choices and think about the choices they’ve made.
“The more we give back, the better the community is going to be.”
Rash said the best piece of advice he would give new fathers is “always do what is best for your family.”
“You are the father. Take care of everybody else’s needs first,” he said. “You come last.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at 501-244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.