Dad, brother, future grandfather, friend, teacher, and former coach. These are all words that describe 2026 East High School retiree Bob Bagley.
Bagley is currently a Geometry and Math in the Trades teacher at East, who is planning to retire after this school year. He grew up in Des Moines and went to Urbandale High School. For college, he went to the University of Iowa, then he transferred to Drake and graduated from there with an Education and coaching degree. He also went to college to get a Business Education degree to teach Business. Bagley has been teaching for 34 years, 25 of them were spent at East. He has three children, they are 24, 27, and 29 years old.
While teaching at East, he also coached many sports. The sports that he coached were girls’ basketball, freshman football, boy’s golf, and girls’ track & field.
Throughout the time that Bagley coached, he liked getting to coach what he loved and being able to help student athletes improve.
“I always liked athletics when I was in high school, and I like helping young kids out with learning the sport of the game,” Bagley said.
Although he has spent a lot of time coaching, he is also described as a funny person who is positive and encouraging in the classroom.
“He’s funny. If you’ve been around Mr. Bagley as a teacher, he likes to tell jokes to kids. He’s very positive and encouraging, he’s supportive,” teacher Jake Habhab said.
Former students who had him in the years before this school year show appreciation and gratitude for Bagley as they enjoyed having him as a teacher and he has connected with many students.
“I enjoyed having him as a teacher. I like his humor a lot, and he seems to enjoy his job especially when it comes to having a good relationship with his students,” junior Julissa Barajas-Lopez said.
Bagley’s motive to become a teacher was because he is from a family of teachers, and he wanted time to grow and start a family.
“Teaching runs in our family, my sister’s a teacher, I have around two or three cousins that are teachers, two of my aunts were teachers. Growing up, I was around a bunch of teachers, I saw my older sister marry another teacher who was a coach and started a family, and I knew that their hours were good to raise a family,” Bagley said.
A favorite memory that he has about East was getting to coach and travel for sports.
“My favorite memories were coaching the football and girls’ track days when we’re on the bus with the kids, and long bus trips with the coaches,” Bagley said.
Bagley’s plan after retirement is to find new hobbies, get back into golf, sub at East in the coming 2026-2027 year, and spending time with his grandchild that is coming in October 2026.
“I have to get a hobby; but I played a lot of golf when I was younger. I might get back into golf, understanding that I won’t be able to play as well as I once was. I will also be a grandpa, and I am planning on coming back to East next year to do some subbing a couple days a week,” Bagley said.