When Christ the King Catholic School opens its doors for another school year Aug. 15, students will be welcomed by Eugene Fernandes, a California teacher of 31 years who has returned to his former home.

Fernandes, the son of a Bayou La Batre shrimp fisherman, was a sophomore at the former, all-male McGill Institute, in Mobile, in 1965, when his family returned to Fernandes’ birthplace, San Diego, Calif. His father, a Portuguese immigrant, had decided to return to tuna fishing out of the southern California port.

“It was a real culture shock,” Fernandes said, of his move to California. “I lived in Alabama from the time I was 5, until I was 16. I was used to lot more structure.”

Having attended McGill, taught by the brothers of the Sacred Heart, he was used to raising his hand to be recognized in class, and standing by his seat to answer a question.

“The students at my California public high school looked at me a little strangely,” he said.

The well-dressed, soft-spoken veteran educator graduated with a bachelor’s from San Diego State University in 1971, and earned a degree in secondary education two years later. He taught for 31 years in Encinitas, Calif., 26 miles north of San Diego.

Fernandes and his wife, Madeline, have two children: Adeline, a high-school agriculture teacher in Madera, Calif., and Eugene Francisco, 23, of San Diego.

Fernandes and Madeline retired to Loxley, just before Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to help his parents, Frank and Maria Odette Fernandes, with their nearby Elsanor farm, where they tend pecan and fruit trees and have timber.

A string of hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast that summer.

“We drove cross-country in a truck with a large trailer during a fuel shortage,” he said. They had to take a northern route to avoid closed roads and fuel shortages on I-10 along the coast.

In Baldwin County the physically fit teacher explored a life-long interest: beekeeping.

Fernandes said he started attending meetings of the local beekeepers association.

Now, he’s president of the Baldwin County Beekeepers Association.

The Loxley family, which, now, also includes Fernandes’ in-laws, Suzette and Jose Flora, attends St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Robertsdale, where he heard about Christ the King from a fellow member of the Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic men’s service organization.

“His vast experience is a tremendous asset that will enrich us all,” Sr. Maureen Nolan, CKCS principal said, of the elementary and junior high teacher. “And several teachers have told me it will be good to have another good, male role model on campus for our boys.”