Yesterday my dad officially retired from teaching. The above picture is him at his retirement party. The lady behind him is the principal of the school and the hottie beside him is my mom. Never thought I'd use those two words in the same sentence. Guess which two. For those of you born outside North America, my pops spent 35 years on the job, 30 at Western Christian College and the final 5 in the Public School sytem of Lexington, South Carolina. Nearly all of you have either had him as a teacher or know someone who did. Even I sat in his famous science classes, in fact, if you asked him, I'm sure he'd tell you his 1992 version was the worst of his entire career. Sigh. The trouble with growing up with a great teacher is its too easy to take him for granted, which I did, all too often. Many times I've wished to sit in his classroom again. I'll save my dad tribute for next month but I will say this - I've never known a better man then my father. He embodies the biblical virtue of "working at it with all of your heart, as working for the Lord and not for men."Although he's retired there'll be no daytime teley for him. Word on the street is he's considering online teaching. 71 and still doing what he loves. That's my dad.
I love you pops,
John
4 comments:
Great for your dad, a loss for the educational system. It's great that he is going to continue using his gift of teaching, though!
Jack Close was the best teacher I ever had. I count his high school Bible class the best I ever participated in at Western C.C.. I was a lame chemistry student but even I learned some things from your dad's chem 20 class. Send him my regards sometime.
Scrawney
I would agree with the "best teacher ever" thing. He has a gift for teaching and I was blessed to have him as my teacher. Congrats to him.
What is one thing that I remember from class with Mr. Close? That beds are made for sleeping, not studying. There were definitely some good times in Mr. Close's class. I have the video proof with us driving through a muddy field looking for the right place to launch some model rockets in Phyics class. Please offer my thanks and congrats to your dad John.
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