School: Neillsville - New Supt. Richard Quast (1982)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Quast, Makie

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 8/05/1982

Neillsville Schools New Supt. Richard Quast (1982)

Seven days after the resignation of Gerald Makie as superintendent of the Neillsville Public Schools, the board of education announced that they had filled the post. Selected was Richard Quast, who has served as business administrator for the district since 1979. The board me with Quast on Monday evening and shortly aft er midnight a two-year contract was signed.

The new role for Quast, which will begin on September 1, will be a different one for the longtime employee of the Neillsville Public School system.

Quast has had a taste of some areas of administration, having served for several years as the district business manager. This got him integrally involved in the movement of the district’s budget from ledger books to computers.

Quast, 41, is a Neillsville native. He is a 1958 graduate of Neillsville High School and attended UW-River Falls, graduating from there with a BS degree in agricultural education in 1963. He then taught vocational agriculture in the Burke, S.D., schools for a year.

In 1964, he returned to Neillsville to teach agriculture in the high school. He also served as head baseball coach and assistant wrestling coach.

In 1972 he became vocational education coordinator for the Neillsville district and also served as assistant high school principal. He held that post through 1978. It was during this period that he earned a master’s degree from UW-River Falls in agricultural education; included in the program were courses in administration taken at UW-Stout.

From 1979 to the present, Quast moved to the superintendent’s office, serving as business administrator and transportation coordinator and now superintendent.