Sometimes you think you’ve got someone pegged as a certain personality or type of person as in the case of California math teacher Jim O’Connor – all business and no play. At the end of the school day, Mr. O’Connor returns to the classroom closet and comes out at the beginning of the next school day. Thankfully, his students judged him wrong and in the process learned an even greater lesson. When Mr O’Connor is not challenging his students to meet the demands of his Calculus class he is on a whole other tangent. 🙂 Watch the video and be inspired.
The story about Mr. O’Connor reminded me of an instructor, Lieutenant (LT) Colonel (Col) Jon A. Reynolds, I had at the Air Force Academy. Lt Col Reynolds was a Vietnam era pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965. Lt Colonel Reynolds spent the next seven years + as a prisoner of war.
Lt Colonel Reynolds like Mr. O’Connor was all business and no-nonsense. I remember some of my classmates would irreverently reference how he might be experiencing POW flashbacks in the classroom when he corrected a cadet for arriving to class late. I don’t have any feel good story to share about the Colonel but I can offer these two facts:
- After a long and distinguished military career of 31 years he retired at the rank of Brigadier General.
- Engaged to his fiance, Emilee, at the time he was shot down they were eventually married after his release in 1974.
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