Teachers We Knew And Loved Or Hated ::

Somewhere in all of the e-mails flying around to everyone when the memorial dedication was being put together was a reference to Mrs. Zimmerman and that got me started thinking about some of the teachers who shaped our young lives and I decided to post some remembrances. I am starting with J. Coke Goodwin who taught me Chemistry and Physics when I was a junior and a senior and who, as I understand it, is still involved with the school system in Camden. There have been a few instructors in high school and college whom I considered to be influential in later years and Mr. Goodwin is one of them. He greatly influenced my choice of what to pursue at Clemson in my freshman year, but, unfortunately, my math background was not adequate.

I do remember writing a paper about the development of polymers for his class which I think I got an A on. This was thanks to the friendship of one of the chemists working at Dupont who helped me tremendously!

My life took a different path, but I currently work daily with some of the premier scientific and engineering minds at NASA and I have to give J. Coke Goodwin a lot of credit for what I feel is a talent for analytical thinking which began with his classes! I have been especially lucky to work on projects involving NASA's great telescopes: Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, and we're looking forward to the launch of the James Webb Telescope which will open up new views of the universe in which we live.

Here is an image of the Cats-Eye Nebula which I have always liked as seen by Hubble:



Let's share some thoughts and experiences about our high school years. We'll make this a group blog yet!