As a young man who had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, I procrastinated in going to college and then took my time registering for classes. As a result, I ended up with Mr. John Whiting for freshman English. He was well known by reputation as one of the toughest professors at the school.

To give you an idea of what he was like; I can still remember the day he became so frustrated with students walking in late, he decided to lock the classroom door at 8a when it started and refused to let anyone in after that. Mr. Whiting also hated it when students fell asleep in his class. Without warning one day, he slammed a large book down on a desk next to a snoozing student. While he made his point, he intimidated the entire class in the process. The interesting thing about Mr. Whiting is that he would also go out of his way to help struggling students as long as they genuinely wanted to learn.

I will always be grateful for the interest he showed in me, the time and patience he invested in helping me, and the passion he demonstrated for the subject matter; not to mention the skills I gleaned from him that helped me through the rest of my college career. In fact, I still reflect on things I learned from him.

Thank you for your piece on Rena Ingersoll and for reminding me of Mr. Whiting.

Keep writing!