Some remembered him as a giant Teddy bear who was tough but fair. Dozens upon dozens of Facebook comments referred to him as a compassionate educator. Others knew him as a man of steadfast faith. He enjoyed being outdoors and around other people.
Jeff Canady, former principal of Landis Elementary and Logansport Junior High School, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS, on Saturday. He was 63.
Canady’s daughter, Lauren Canady, explained her father grew up in northern Howard County with five siblings.
He grew up to become a man of many interests — he was a woodworker, enjoyed baking bread and Christmastime cinnamon rolls, kept bees and was able to find an educational opportunity in nearly everything.
He liked to keep busy, Lauren explained.
Michele Starkey, superintendent of the Logansport School Corporation, worked with Canady for 28 years. She was hired as his assistant principal at Landis Elementary, where Canady served as principal for 15 years.
Several attributes came to mind while she tried to sum up the type of person Canady was. In the end, she decided to describe him as a “very fair, kind-hearted person.”
Given Canady’s stature, Starkey said, students often thought their principal would be gruff when they first met him. In reality, she said, he was much more jovial. He was able to crack jokes with students at the middle school.
Lauren agreed her father was a bit of a jokester. He enjoyed giving her and her sister, Renee, riddles when they were younger. He loved to laugh and enjoyed teasing his loved ones in an endearing way.
“Jeff was just a very kind, tender hearted, good person who just always wanted to do the right thing for everybody,” Starkey said.
Canady retired from his position as Logansport Junior High School’s principal in 2020 amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school was called Lincoln Middle School when he first accepted the position. Then, in 2017, the school absorbed all seventh- and eighth-graders in the Logansport Community School Corp. while sixth-graders were moved to Columbia 6th Grade Academy. The consolidation brought roughly 150 additional students to the school’s population.
He was Logansport Junior High’s principal for a decade.
“I’m just very appreciative of the community — of the different superintendents I’ve worked with — for the opportunities that I’ve had here,” Canady said around the time of his retirement. “It’s just been a blessing for me and my family to have spent the majority of my career in Logansport, Indiana.”
Roughly a month after retiring, he started back up as the school system’s workplace specialist, lead safety specialist and helped with expulsion hearings.
“You don’t find them any better than Jeff,” Starkey said, later adding, “the impact across our school district, especially with staff members, it’s been a pretty sad day around here.”
Lauren explained seeing her father’s passion for education inspired her to become an educator. She was an elementary school teacher for several years before becoming assistant principal at Logansport Junior High.
“He was the biggest cheerleader,” she said. “I was very excited to become a Junior High principal, but I think he was even more excited than I was.”
The two talked shop all the time, she added. When they found out he had ALS, their conversations about education could feel like drinking from a firehose — Lauren wanted all the advice she could get from him.
“He was very good at both the staff side and the student side, leading his staff to develop their own interests and their own leadership style … he cared about people,” she said. “It wasn’t just ‘these are my employees. These are the students at my school.’ They were individuals and he cared about each of them.”
He was her principal throughout elementary school, she added. It was comforting to have him around, even if he liked to steal food out of her lunchbox.
Canady also started a woodworking business after stepping down as principal. He sold his work at the Logansport Farmers Market, alongside Lauren, under the name The Carpenter Bee Woodworks.
Kathy Courtad, one of the heads of the Farmers Market, said the business had a following. His cutting boards, coasters and signs often had a religious connotation, she added.
Standing in her kitchen, she read from a cutting board Canady gifted to her. The inscription quoted Acts 2:46 — “They broke bread in their homes, and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
“I loved it when he gave it to me,” Courtad said. “He was just so kind and he was always giving little gifts to people that he worked with. I really treasure it.”
Lauren said the company will continue.
Outside of work, Canady was a dedicated member of New Life Alliance Church. He taught Sunday School, served as an adult small group leader and served several terms on the church’s governing board.
He was the church’s worship leader when Pete Zimmerman met him. Zimmerman’s first impression was that his soon-to-be friend must be tough as nails — he had a certain “you will worship” demeanor. His voice carried well and commanded the attention of the congregation.
“But once you got to know him, the man was a big teddy bear,” Zimmerman said. “He had a heart of gold. He had a great love for people of all ages.”
Before long, the two became hunting buddies, primarily bagging pheasants. Canady’s primary love language was quality time, Zimmerman noted, so he enjoyed their long car rides together and time spent in hunting blinds, even if they never spoke a word.
“He was the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back. But by the same token, he was not one that would let people do wrong,” Zimmerman said. “He would not accept sin for the benefit of making a person feel good. He was going to hold them to a biblical standard as much as was within their level of maturity.”
Lauren noted her father read through the Bible 30 times.
He also liked science fiction and Westerns, Lauren said, adding he probably read every book by Louis L’Amour.
Canady’s wife, Jennifer, said the biggest thing about his life is that he loved the Lord.
“He strived to live for the Lord and serve him faithfully in everything that he did,” Lauren said, relaying her mother’s thoughts. “Whether it was spending time with us or being outside or being an administrator, it was what guided his life.”
The former principal shared his own thoughts in a Facebook post in September, pointing out the Bible doesn’t state “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.”
“When I had cancer, I always said, ‘Cancer is not who I am, it’s what I have. I am a child of God.’ That was a long period of time that my family and I trusted God for the outcome,” Canady wrote. “Now, I have been diagnosed with ALS. This is definitely a condition that is more than I can handle. Barring God’s intervention, the outcome for this is certain and on its way. But again, it’s not who I am, it’s what I have. I am a child of God.”