“Old teachers never die—they just lose their class”

“Old soldiers never die—they just fade away” is an old saying that was popularized by General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) in his farewell address to Congress on April 19, 1951. Many parodies of the saying have been made.
 
“Old teachers never die—they just lose their class” is a jocular one-line saying that has been cited in print since at least 1972. In a few versions, “never die” is replaced with “never retire.”
 
A similar education joke is “Old deans never die—they just lose their faculties.”
 
 
21 September 1972, The Press-Courier (Oxnard, CA), “Dilliberations” by Kitty Dill, pg. 21, col. 1:
Dave Meaney, an Oxnard School district teacher, passed on these lines:
 
“Old principals never die. They just lose their faculties.”
 
“Old teachers never die, They just lose their class.”
 
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29 May 1976, Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, ‘She Hasn’t Lost Class” by Mary Beth Murphy, pt. 1, pg. 7, col. 1:
Surrounded by confused clutter, boxes to pack and term papers to grade, Mrs. Washa sat in her office in the Department of Exceptional Education at the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee and chuckled over a sign on her bulletin board: Teachers Never Die, They Just Lose Their Class.
 
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February 1978, Texas Monthly, pg. 25, col. 2:
Old teachers never die, they just lose their class.
(T-shirts from The Top Shop—ed.)
 
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More than 1,001 Marquee and Readerboard Messages
By Walter T. Proctor
Sacramento, CA: Proctor Publications
1981
Pg. ?:
OLD TEACHERS NEVER DIE
THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CLASS
 
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696 Silly School Jokes & Riddles
By Joseph Rosenbloom
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
2003
Pg. 104:
Old principals never die, they just lose their faculties.
Old teachers never retire, they just lose their class.
 
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A Man Walks Into a Bar 3:
The Ultimate Colelction of Jokes and One-Liners
By Jonathan Swan
London: Ebury Press (Random House)
2010
Pg. 136:
Old teachers never die. They just lose their class.
Old professors never die. They just lose their faculties.
 
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Old Teachers Never Die: They Just Lose Their Class
Mary Brackenbury
Mary Brackenbury, 2010 - 204 pages