June has seemed like one long farewell party for Jay Sasnett Jr., retiring after 41 years in teaching, but all that he’s really leaving is his classroom at Salmon Bay Middle School. He’s not leaving his neighborhood or giving up any of his many, many outdoor interests.

Sasnett, always known to students and parents as just Jay, has claimed to be on the verge of retiring as a Seattle middle school teacher for years. Last fall, his claims seemed more valid, prompting a Facebook page devoted to the question, “Will Jay really retire?” (Savvy students asked to see the official paperwork).

Then Jay booked Sunset Hill Community Club for the first of a series of retirement parties, and everyone started paying attention.

Here’s the thing, the word retiring in conjunction with Jay Sasnett is an oxymoron, no matter what context. Sasnett is the least “retiring” person in Ballard, if not the state of Washington.

He wears spandex biking shorts at an age that horrifies his middle school students, and he speaks his mind on all subjects, especially on the joys of bicycling, ham radio, map-making, skiing, current events and Krispy Kreme donuts.

This is a man whose enthusiasm for his passions has boiled over in the classroom for 41 academic years, even when his hyperkinetic energy seemed wasted on the sleepwalking stage of preteens in morning homeroom.

But if the roasts and toasts that started when four decades of students and parents believed that Jay was really leaving the classroom are an indication, not one student has escaped unmarked by their encounters with him, as though his brand is stamped on every single one.

How many thousands of past and present students are part of Jay’s herd? He managed to leave his mark on three generations of one family.

From all across the globe, hundreds of former students have been paying tribute since Jay made his official announcement in May.

Fans have played “Jay trivia” and ordered a gross of Jay’s trademark white hat. Songs have been performed, sheet cakes served, and in keeping with Jay’s own frankness, no one has sanitized their memories during hours of “roasts.”

Those stories range beyond the walls of Jay’s final classroom on the third floor of the former James Monroe Junior High because his teaching time was never confined to school hours.

He led weekly after-school biking trips and organized the ski bus every year. He brought in ham radio testers and appeared to every local student like an apparition biking or jogging backwards through the streets.

He was the teacher who would hail a mortified student at QFC and ask about their country map. He had home office hours and would answer the phone, “This is Jay.”

It seemed possible that Sasnett could predict weather, stating with certainty on what bicycle or winter enrichment days it was going to rain. His nearly trip-long lecture on the ski bus to Snoqualmie was the stuff of legend. His expressions and vocal delivery were ripe for perpetual caricature.

Jay was at Lake Washington Middle School and then an original teacher at New Optional Middle School (NOMS). He spent the last decade in a classroom just 20 blocks from his home.

His sons attended Ballard High School. His wife Susan always helped organize the logistical nightmare of ski package rentals.

Either his red Volkswagen camper bus or Jeep Wrangler always had a bike rack attached. Alumni reminisced about the times at Camp Orkila when Jay left other mountain bikers in the dust on the ride he always organized.

Not all the students appreciated Jay at the time, in the same way that not everyone is ready for raw garlic with their morning cereal. But not one parent or student is ever going to forget “they had Jay” over the course of the school years.

Even when he tried to give his damaged vocal cords a rest, Sasnett couldn’t be described for five minutes as retiring.

Come fall, Jay won’t be presiding over morning homeroom, but every student, past and present, should continue to watch their back. Jay Sasnett Jr. will still be everywhere.