Vicki Voorhees, who is an instructional assistant for discipline at Gulf, will retire at the end of the school year.
She started at Gulf in August 2004 and was hired by Assistant Principal Patricia Haynes.
Before working at Gulf she was a Media Tech Assistant at Ridgewood High School, from 1999 to 2003.
Vicki Townsend was born in Athens, Tennessee, but moved here with her parents when she was young. She attended 3rd and 4th grades at the old red brick Elfers Elementary School, 5th and 6th grades at Richey Elementary School, and 7th and 8th grades at Gulf Junior High School, which was then located in the building that now houses Schwettman Education Center. She graduated from Gulf High School in 1970.
Mrs. Voorhees and her husband Mike plan to move to Alabama. Mike is a son of Walter Voorhees, who was a Pasco County Commissioner. Voorhees Road is named for him.
In December 2004, a few months after Mrs. Voorhees started at Gulf, she and her husband suffered a great tragedy when their only child, Matthew, age 22, was killed when the motorcycle he was riding was struck by a car. She says that she is most appreciative that Thomas Imerson, who was the principal of Gulf High School then, and who also lost a son, comforted her during that period, and that Melissa Ortiz, with whom she worked, was able to make her laugh again.
