Whether you have heard his loud exclamations bellowing throughout the first floor, his wicked electric guitar solos at school assemblies, or have simply had one of his classes, the majority of Cleveland students have been graced with the privilege of experiencing Steve Nims’ presence during their four years of high school at Cleveland. He has been an indispensable part of the community since 2008, when he began teaching here, and continues to make an indelible impact on so many individuals, students and teachers alike.
“I just think the community at Cleveland is really special,” said Nims. “I’ve loved everywhere I’ve worked. I’ve worked at Jefferson, at Madison, and at what used to be Wilson. But there is a vibe at Cleveland that is hard to explain unless you’re here.”
Nims himself is a crucial part of cultivating the very environment that makes our school so distinguishable from others, and is now retiring from his position after 18 years of teaching at Cleveland.
He has always been local to the area. Nims was raised in Northeast Portland, the middle child of three brothers.
“I went to schools such as St. Rose up until eighth grade, and then I went to Central Catholic High School. It was a small little world, but it was a nice community in which I grew up,” he said.
While young Nims had always dreamed of being a rock star, inspired by the metal bands of his early childhood and adolescence that he loved so dearly, he is a self-described pragmatic individual, and knew it would be most sensible to pursue a career that would offer stability. Therefore, when his school counselor inquired about his future position of choice his senior year of high school, Nims replied that he wanted to be a teacher.
“And it was literally just kind of an offhanded comment, and so I went to a career day thing where it was, like, ‘do you wanna be a teacher?’ and I thought ‘ok, that is kind of cool.’ I knew I wanted to do something with history, because I always liked that, and so once I actually got into college, I knew I was going to be a history major and I was going to get a teaching degree.”
After teaching at multiple PPS high schools during the beginning of his profession, Nims found himself at Cleveland, where he quickly settled into the culture and remained for 18 years of his life.
Currently, Nims wears many hats within the community. He teaches IB World Religions and IB 20th Century History, and taught Modern World History in previous freshmen academies. Nims also facilitates and attends many valuable clubs, such as Jewish Student Union and Women of the Week, serving as an advocate for people of all identities. He is even the senior class adviser in partnership with Julia Blattner.
Many will miss Nims’ witticisms after he retires this year, as he has acquired a plethora of inside jokes within Cleveland.
“My favorite memory of Mr. Nims is when I got $100 in the Valentines’ Day card he handwrote for our class,” said Violet Lewis, a junior, in reference to a joke that Nims created about gifting students money for the holiday in his World Religions class.
“My favorite memory of Nims is when he would scream ‘scoreboard’ during the Kahoots,” D’Shaune Villanueva contributed, a junior who shares the class with Lewis.
Nims’ humor is not lost on the faculty, either.
“He’s the only person I know who has a letterman’ s jacket with an embroidered piece of pie,” Nathaniel Pier said, an IB Anthropology teacher and one of Nims’ companions at the school.
As students and faculty alike revealed, Nims’ exceptional humor will be something that Cleveland can never forget nor replace.
Interactions with Nims carry an essence of authenticity that our society often lacks. In his friendships with so many individuals, he has created a sort of exclusivity that makes everyone feel valued by him.
“I hope that the students who had me, know that I cared about them not only as students but as people. And I hope that my colleagues view me as a good teacher and as a positive force at the school,” he said.
Years later, they still do.
“He’s maintained an optimism and commitment to teaching throughout his career. I remember in the hallways at McDaniel in the mid 2000s, Mr. Nims greeted students in the hallway. He serves that same role at Cleveland, and getting to know him as a colleague, he is as supportive of his colleagues as his students,” Matthew Parker commented, a past student of Nims and a current literature teacher at Cleveland.
Nims has, over the course of his teaching career, established himself as a treasured figure within the Cleveland community. He devoted a massive amount of effort, energy, and time to this school.
As it is Nims’ final year at Cleveland, he will be retiring in the summer of 2026. The loss for Cleveland will be tremendous. Regardless, the community wishes him the most genuine luck on his journey, and Nims himself has stated that he will likely continue to substitute for absent teachers at Cleveland.
“It’s the end of an era. I’m super happy for him, and the only saving grace knowing that he’s gonna retire is knowing that he’ll come back and sub for us. He’s retired, but not gone,” said Julia Blattner, a Modern World History teacher and close friend of Nims. “Just one of the most sincere, typical dad joke energy that everyone needs a little bit in their lives. It is so telling that there’s so many students who haven’t had Nims, but still know him. His energy spreads far and wide in the school.”
Nims, more than anyone else, deserves to know that his rare spirit has touched and equally changed the lives of everyone who comes across him, whether it is during their time at Cleveland, at Ghost concerts, or any other space that Nims frequents. It’s difficult to put into words the loss that his retirement is for the school culture, but most poignant when put into a form of speech that Nims often uses: a hashtag. So, #wishingyouluckking.
