Hundreds of tributes pour in for Sunnyside High principal who died of brain cancer
Sunnyside High School Principal Tim Liles was a beloved, encouraging figure for hundreds of students and colleagues throughout his 28-year career as an educator with Fresno Unified School District.
His death Tuesday from brain cancer came as a heartbreaking shock to many who didn’t know he had been quietly battling terminal illness since a diagnosis in March. Liles was 55.
A flood of tributes memorializing the man have been shared on social media. Many grieving students and staff also stopped by the southeast Fresno high school on Wednesday to leave flowers, light candles, and hang up handmade posters outside to share their appreciation and respect.
Sunnyside is Fresno Unified’s largest high school with around 3,000 students.
His “heart for kids” was evident, said friend Marc Johnson, executive director of the Fresno Compact, co-director of the John D. Welty Center for Educational Policy and Leadership at Fresno State, and retired Sanger Unified School District superintendent.
“He wore it,” Johnson said of that heart. “You could see it. You could feel it, and all you had to do is watch the way kids related to him and you knew they saw it.”
“Yes, our hearts are broken,” wrote his wife Valerie Villalobos-Liles and their two sons in a statement Wednesday, shared by a family friend, “but they are also filled with gratefulness that our Lord blessed our family with Tim as our very own. We will miss his unconditional love, his passion for life and even his corny sense of humor. I am convinced he was truly an agent of Gods.”
Before he became Sunnyside principal in 2012, Liles worked at Edison and Roosevelt high schools, Ahwahnee Middle School, in fiscal services for the district, and as Sunnyside’s student activities director then campus culture director, said Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson.
Liles taught a leadership class and coached basketball among his past roles, and was currently serving as president of a Fresno charter of the Association of California School Administrators.
In a statement, Nelson described Liles as the “ultimate cheerleader” for others and a leader, trusted colleague, and dear friend.
“Tim was a shining example of positivity even during the most difficult of times,” Nelson wrote. “Over the past several months, his inspirational spirit did not waiver.”
Students share memories on Facebook
Nelson’s statement on Facebook about Liles’ passing was shared around 750 times, often accompanied by additional tributes, many from students.
Here are some of them:
- “This man believed in me when I didn’t know how to believe in myself.”
- “He didn’t act as warden; he acted as a supporter, motivator, educator.. list goes on.”
- “As a girl who grew up with a stuttering problem, he gave me a platform to exceed the boundaries that I set for myself. I never thought I could do it and every time he offered words of encouragement. He challenged me in ways I could have never imagined and taught me the value of camaraderie, work, ideas, and always promoted my creativity.”
- “He was always so positive & caring towards everyone.”
- “Mr. Liles was my own personal hero, as I’m sure many of you who knew him can say the same. He saw me when I felt the most invisible. No matter how full of doubt my high school experience was, one thing I didn’t doubt was that this man was for us, he was for every single student he ever interacted with. Mr. Liles is the kind of educator we need more of. Mr. Liles is the kind of educator I will always strive to be, especially because he’s a reason I became a teacher.”
- “May you Rest In Peace Principle Liles.. you were an amazing principal to all of your students that roared high. Always learning things about each and one of us and our goals.”
- “Mr. Liles believed in so many of us before we ever believed in ourselves. Such a tremendous loss ...”
- “Very sad... he was such a happy person always had a smile to his face always joking around with everyone I had the privilege to attend sunnyside while he was there. Leadership was amazing he made all the fun activities happen you will truly be missed may you R.I.P. my condolences to his family. heaven gained an angel.”
- “Such a positive presence in my years as a student at Sunnyside High School. All educators should take notes from this man if they ever had the honor to see him at work.”
- “The wisdom from this man will never come from anyone else. I miss him hyping up the rallies yelling ‘go wildcats’ super loud. The enthusiasm he had with the students went crazy. Nothing will be the same.”
Advocate for Fresno, learning
Among his students was Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez, who was in Liles’ leadership class when he taught at Roosevelt. Chavez said he’s planning to adjourn Thursday’s council meeting in his memory.
Chavez also honored Liles last year as the “Man of the Year” for southeast Fresno.
“He had this amazing ability to see the potential in everyone, even when those kids didn’t see it themselves,” Chavez said, “and he had a way of teaching life lessons without yelling. He was a builder, motivator and inspirational leader that led by example.”
Liles’ roots in the area go deep. He was born and raised in Fresno. At one point, he moved away for eight years to nearby Sanger to be near his wife’s family, one friend said, but then returned back home.
“Sometimes we jokingly say, ‘I’m Cedar Avenue educated,’” Liles said in a 2015 interview with FresYes, “because I went to Calwa Elementary on Cedar and Jensen, Sequoia Middle School on Cedar just south of Butler, Roosevelt High School, and then Fresno State.”
Johnson said his friend saw a “lot of need” in southeast Fresno, “and I’ll tell you what, Sunnyside High was a place where needs were being met. … It’s amazing what they are doing on all levels to set high expectations and support kids in meeting those expectations.”
State Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula pointed to Sunnyside’s Doctors Academy, which helps prepare students for jobs in the medical field, as one of the school’s success stories.
Arambula wrote in a post that he will always appreciate Liles’ “strong encouragement that students reflecting the #CentralValley’s diversity should pursue medical careers and come back to serve in our region.”
Friend Tracy Correa Lopez said Liles decided to donate his body to science after hearing training physicians had a shortage of cadavers.
“Even in death, he wants to educate, and that’s just Tim,” Lopez said. “He wants the opportunity to help people learn. It’s just so fitting for him.”
Lopez said Liles continued to work after being diagnosed with cancer and wasn’t admitted into the hospital until this month. He died at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, she said.
“We all knew that this would happen,” she said of those who knew of his cancer diagnosis. “I don’t think anyone of us knew it would happen this fast. He had setbacks in the past couple of weeks.”
Creating positive campus culture
Lopez remembers Liles always being “the life of the party.”
Liles brought that energy to school with him, gaining a reputation for his fun antics at school rallies where he showed up in costume, and competing in lip sync competitions between schools to win scholarship money for his students.
Johnson said even when Liles was principal, he had a homeroom class of his own – a group of students who meet up with the same educator throughout their four years of high school. It was all part of building a positive campus culture.
“One thing we’ve begun to finally recognize in education,” Liles said in his 2015 interview with FresYes, “is that the culture and how we interact, our relationships, have everything to do with learning. … Now as a district, we completely understand that it’s relationships, and sense of safety on your campus, etc., that leads to learning. You’ve got to have them hand-in-hand.”
He continued by saying there are a “ton of positive things that happen every day if I’m looking for them” and that the kindness of students never ceased to amaze him – things like saying hello, opening doors for people, and offering to help carry things.
Liles said in the interview that school visitors often took notice and came back to tell him, then ask, “Why is that? Because it’s not like that at a lot of other schools.”
“And then I always tell them, ‘Go look at the adults. Tell me what they are doing,’” Liles said. “They’re saying hello. They’re helping people.”
Tim Liles
Born: Jan. 11, 1965
Died: Sept. 22, 2020
Residence: Fresno
Occupation: Sunnyside High School principal
Survivors: Wife Valerie; sons Christopher and Zackary; mother Helen Liles; and siblings Susan Fisher-Shultz, Janice Gallinetti, Darline Serrano, Ron Liles, Patti Gimbal, and Kevin Liles.
Services: No memorial services are currently planned because of COVID-19, but the family is hoping to do some celebration of life in the future, said friend Tracy Correa Lopez.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
