Ann (LaBreche) Thill
I was born and raised in Marquette, Michigan to Bernard and Effie (Pearson) LaBreche, and am the youngest of seven children. There were five boys and two girls in our family. Sadly, my oldest brother died when he was twenty-six months old. All six of the LaBreche children attended NMU with five of us graduating and receiving our respective degree. One brother attended for a time and then entered the United States Army. How fortunate we were to be raised in a loving, caring and nurturing family that valued an education.
Upon graduation from high school I began my educational journey at NMU in 1967. To become more engaged in university life, I joined the Gamma Sigma Sigma Service Sorority as well as the Newman Center (now known as Catholic Campus Ministry). Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honor in 1971, I began my seven-year elementary teaching career in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
During the summer of 1976-1977, upon returning to Marquette for a ten-year class reunion, I started to date my future husband, Ronald Thill. We had gone to school from third through twelfth grade together! We got engaged in 1978 during my seventh year of teaching. Ron was a commercial fisherman in the family business, Thill’s Fish House in Marquette. Since we couldn’t move Thill’s Fish House to Green Bay, I completed my last year of teaching in Green Bay, married Ron in August of 1978 and we began our beautiful life together. We raised our family in Marquette where we continue to reside. Ron, a former part-owner of Thill’s Fish House retired in 2010.
I began my first substitute teaching career in Marquette in 1978. After Ron and I were blessed with our first child, Lisa, I became a stay-at-home mother. Then, we were blessed with our second daughter Erica, and I continued to be a stay-at-home mother. Being a stay-at-home mother afforded me some time to occasionally help out at the Fish House. In 2000, when Lisa was in college and Erica was in high school, I returned to substitute teaching, part-time teaching, and then full-time teaching in the Marquette Area Public School System until I retired in 2015.
10-18-2000 -------6-12-2001 I was hired to teach in the Marquette Area
Public School System as a Long-Term Title I Substitute at Sandy Knoll Elementary School
2001-2002 Substitute Teacher in various schools and in various grade levels in the Marquette Area Public Schools
2002-2003-Part Time Music Teacher at Vandenboom Elementary School in Marquette
2003-2004-Part Time Physical Education Teacher at Sandy Knoll Elementary School in Marquette
2004-2005 Part-time physical Education Teacher at Bothwell Middle School in Marquette
2005-2007-Part Time Kindergarten Teacher at Sandy Knoll Elementary School
2007-2008 Full Time First Grade Teacher at Sandy Knoll Elementary School
In 2009-2010 I received the Kiwanis Honored Teacher of the Year Award.
Even after graduating from NMU, I continued to enroll in their Education Classes and received the equivalent of a Master’s Degree in 2011.
2008-2015 Full Time Second Grade Teacher at Sandy Knoll Elementary School
In 2015, after the school year, I retired from teaching. It was now time to begin another exciting chapter in my life.
Ann pictured on the far left.