Sorry for the amount of time that has passed since my last post, but getting the word out about the upcoming Walk to Defeat ALS (Sunday, September 29 at the Fred Beekman Park on the OSU campus) and the correspondence related to it has kept me fairly busy (not to mention a plethora of in the home appointments with nurses and therapists)! So many of you have become members of our Bill's Backers Walk team by signing up to walk and/or by your generous gifts that you've succeeded in adding to my daily routine the joy of composing and emailing heartfelt thank you notes. In case I've missed anyone, thank you all very much for your support and encouragement!
This is another post about some of the teachers that I have fond memories of and who influenced some of the choices I made in life. When I graduated from Ottawa-Glandorf High School in 1967 I had three personally assumed life/career goals that would surprise very few who knew me:
To be a math major at ONU so I could teach math in a high school.
To coach basketball.
To work with the youth in a local church.
While I ended up doing all three to some degree, the order/priority changed a bit by the middle of my sophomore year of college. In this post I want to reflect a bit about the interest in being a math major.
There's no question that my interest was first stimulated by my dad. He absolutely loved to work with numbers! Sometimes I thought he was in business by himself so that he could do his own books - be his own bookkeeper. I remember observing him in his office at the eggplant or at his desk in our home poring over slips of paper that represented notes about the number of dozens of eggs picked up from the chicken coops of area farmers; deliveries made to restaurants, grocery stores, and bakeries; hand-written time sheets of employees; and probably a few other things I'm forgetting right now.
And then he'd start computing - mostly in his head, but often rechecked with an early model adding machine. And if there was a discrepancy, he checked the work of the adding machine first assuming that he'd entered something wrong, rather than he made a math mistake in his head! But, it was his little shortcuts for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing that most intrigued me! He knew so many interesting and intriguing things to do with numbers that I had to be interested in what he did and how he did it. I still use some of the things he taught me but I do so without thinking about it and sometimes I have difficulty explaining the how and the why.
That would never have worked in the classrooms of two of the most outstanding teachers I ever had! Yes, they were math teachers. (Don't get me wrong, I had other outstanding teachers, but these two ignited my interest in majoring in math and teaching math.) Their names were Dave Laudick and Ron Evans. In Mr. Laudick's classroom, math was fun because he was in love with what he was doing! You knew it the moment you walked into his classroom. The way he enthusiastically explained things at/on the chalkboard - the way he could correct/tease you when you made a mistake so that you still felt good about yourself, about being in his class, and about taking algebra - his laughter and smile while sharing concepts in class or wherever he was and whenever you encountered him - his personableness as he walked around class helping us while we were doing our homework - the way he made assignments to hear us groan - but most of all because of his obvious concern for us as students and people. I still absolutely enjoy doing algebra problems or utilizing its concepts in life and its because of the knowledge and love of algebra that Mr. Laudick affectionately and enthusiastically (yes, I know I already said that and the emphasis is intentional!) imparted in his classroom. Thank you, Dave! (There, I finally called him by his first name instead of Mr. or coach - I guess I didn't mention that he was also my reserve basketball coach.)
Finally, there was Mr. Evans - actually not just was, but also is. Ron Evans not only taught math courses at OG but also at ONU and as a result he has been one of the constants in my life as I have stayed connected to ONU as a trustee and a member of the Athletic Hall of Fame. We've often ended up at the same table at banquets and talked of our connections with OG and ONU. Oh, and his wife, Patsy, was one of my elementary school teachers, so we go way back as well. He was also my baseball coach my freshman year in high school and helped me see the light that my future was in track! (He mostly used me to steal bases!)
The thing is, while algebra was easy for me, geometry was not! Ron Evans was my high school geometry teacher. Again though, I encountered a teacher who enjoyed and knew his subject matter, was an athlete, and who made me want to learn. He taught me that there were worse things in life than not being challenged; giving up was not an option; and struggling to complete homework assignments was worth it - had its rewards which contributed to self-worth and self-confidence developing.
Before our junior or senior year in high school Ron Evans was hired by ONU to teach math courses and coach baseball. He was one of the reasons I went to ONU as a math major. He taught my first few math classes. He was my math advisor as well as my wife, Dorothy's. Did I mention that Dorothy and I were both math majors, met in Mr. Evans class, and became friends our freshman year? Well, we were and did. Oh, and as I was struggling through Calculus 3, it was Mr. Evans who helped me get through it and discussed with me my changing dreams/goals from a math major to a religion major and beginning to think about entering the ministry. Math and teaching math were important to Mr. Evans, but not as important as me and that has made all the difference in the world! He helped me choose one more math class so I could still do my student teaching and have enough courses to obtain my certification as a math teacher. You know, in case youth ministry really wasn't my cup of tea. Thank you, Ron!
So, who moved you enough in life to motivate you to choose the life paths you've tried?
Peace, friends!
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