Most people vision retirement as a time for relaxing, doing crossword puzzles and watching television. However, former Portage High School teacher and coach Michael Lemond has instead chosen to focus his time and energy on remaining an active member of his community. Lemond is the treasurer for the Portage Exchange Club and the Financial Secretary at St. Peter Lutheran Church.
Lemond said that his primary responsibility with the Exchange Club is processing any money that comes into the club and handling both of the club’s accounts. One of the accounts is for the operation of the club itself, while the other is an activities’ fund.
“The Exchange Club has two primary functions that hit very close to what I believe in,” he said. “One is prevention of child abuse and helping youths within the community. Secondly, it’s an organization that promotes patriotism, and that’s something I strongly believe in.”
In addition to his leadership role with the Exchange Club, Lemond dedicates as much of his time as possible to helping St. Peter Lutheran Church. He has served in nearly every possible capacity, including the last five years as the Financial Secretary.
Lemond’s willingness to work hard has been apparent since his childhood in Lafayette. He went through adversity at age 18 when his father passed away of cancer. Lemond was the third of seven children and the two oldest were away at college, so he stayed home and attended Purdue University while working as a janitor and helping raise his younger siblings.
“That was the situation and I had no choice,” Lemond said. “It was either do that or watch the family have a difficult time. It was simply a situation where it happened at a time where I could do that for the family, so you do it.”
Lemond went on to become a social studies teacher at PHS, a post he held for 30 years. During that tenure he coached football, boys and girls golf, baseball and basketball. He helped guide the Portage football team to the ultimate success as the offensive line coach for the 1977 State Champions.
After upsetting Merrillville in the Sectional Championship, Portage ended up winning its way to Indianapolis for the State Finals.
“For me, the most enjoyable moment was right before the game,” Lemond said. “The team we were playing, Evansville, had looked forward all year to beating Merrillville. They knew that was the team they were going to have to beat. So, when we ended up going to the State Championship Game, they thought they had it won.
“We walked out on the field and they were joking around and horsing around. When we went back into the locker room, our kids were so ticked off that they were being taken for granted. That was the highlight for me, to see that emotion coming forward.”
Lemond said that baseball was his favorite sport to play, but the weather in Northwest Indiana during the spring season did not make it as enjoyable to coach as it was during the summer. He picked up the head golf coaching job to garner head coaching experience and bolster his chance of becoming a head football coach. However, he fell in love with coaching golf.
“As it turned out, it became my favorite because not only did I get to coach the game of golf, but I got to play golf every day after school,” he said. “I got to play on an awful lot of good golf courses.”
Lemond stays physically active by power walking six days per week. He walks approximately five miles each day at about a 12 minute mile pace.
Lemond has two daughters, one grandson and has been happily married to his wife Linda for 42 years.
“It’s been God’s greatest gift to me,” he said. “It was a blessing. He sent her into my life, and as a matter of fact, the very first day that I met her, God gave me a little clip on the head and said, ‘She’s the one you’re supposed to marry,’ and it worked out.”