Senior year at Elco high school our class had a teacher named Mr. John English.

That’s him there in that photo.

It would have been quite appropriate, of course, if he had been our English teacher, but his subject matter was Physics.

I remember him as one of our better teachers, definitely one of our better science teachers. He had an easy-going manner and his explanations were always clear. Arlene Herr and I also took an extra credit Astronomy course with him. When Eric, Dennis, and Gary (Larry, Moe, and Curly?) needed to put together some electrical contraption for an assembly, they would rummage through Mr. English’s back room; he always had what they needed.

Yesterday came word that John English died on Saturday of a heart attack. The evening before he had attended an Elco reunion, so he spent his last night on this earth with friends and colleagues.

He was only 84.

Which got me to wondering.

When I was going to school, I always tended to think of teachers as being way older than I was. This probably stemmed from having all my elementary teachers as women in their 50s or older.

But Mr. English (as I still think of him; I never got to know him after high school) was only eight years older than I am. Basically a contemporary of mine.

Anyway, he was a good teacher, and I’m sorry he’s gone.

You can read his obituary here.