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Retired high school teacher, counselor, administrator, and adjunct university professor, Luciano Ramirez, credits his time at Cochise College as the start of a long and rewarding career.

 

Cochise College alum, Luciano Ramirez, attended the college in 1964, during the first semester it was open. Ramirez majored in General Studies and worked at the college while attending. He heard about the college when its first president, Dr. Thaddeus C. (T.C.) Johnston, visited Douglas High School to let the students know it would be opening that Fall.  

 

Ramirez said before Johnston’s visit to his high school, he had never considered going to college. “I actually thought I was going to end up in factory work,” said Ramirez. “I came from a very humble home [with a] single mom raising five kids in Douglas.” His older sister, who was going to college in California, along with a few cousins attending university in Phoenix and Flagstaff, encouraged Ramirez to pursue his secondary education. Going to Cochise College changed his future. He said, “That September of 1964 . . . was my beginning. It saved my life.”  

 

He has many special memories from attending and working as a custodian at the college. “In the student union, we had a music machine. I remember playing, endlessly, ‘Nowhere Man’ by the Beatles, as I mopped and cleaned the student union on the weekends,” said Ramirez.  

 

During his time there, Ramirez planted evergreen trees in front of the campus. “When they were just getting going, [the college] didn’t have a whole lot of greenery,” he said. “So, I helped plant those evergreen trees when I was there.” Those trees can still be seen at the Douglas campus, today. He was also the school photographer for the yearbook, which allowed him to put his lifelong passion for photography to good use. Ramirez said he had a love for photography ever since he was a kid, when he would do contact printing in the bathroom of his family home. He volunteered at a local photography studio in Douglas and even joined a photo club when he was around 11 years old.  

 

He hadn’t always known that he wanted to be a teacher. According to Ramirez, his passion for teaching was something he discovered when he was in college. “I wasn’t the best student in high school, but Cochise taught me a lot,” he said. “I learned how to study at Cochise College.” Ramirez said that his time at the college prepared him to transfer to Northern Arizona University (NAU), where he was able to study and do well.  

 

After graduating from NAU with a Bachelor of Science, he accepted a teaching contract in Riverside, California. His career as an educator took him to Orange County, Palm Springs, and Desert Sands. During this time, he completed a Master of Science in Counseling from California State University at Fullerton and two years of doctoral work in educational administration at the University of Southern California.  

 

According to Ramirez, teaching has been a fulfilling career for him. “It’s been fantastic,” he said. In 2007, he finished his 38-year-long education career in Indio, California.  

 

In 2022, Ramirez published his memoir, One Boy’s Story, about his life in Douglas, Arizona. He has been enjoying retirement in California, where he writes, spends time with his wife, Tonia, and walks with his dogs, Louie-Louie and Apollo.  

 

About the author: This article was written by Sofia Snyder, a Liberal Arts student majoring in journalism. She currently serves as a Marketing and Communications intern at Cochise College and is set to graduate in December 2025.

Credits

• Writer

  Sofia Snyder

• DATE

  October 01, 2025

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