The odds are that I’m never going to stand on the Oscar stage and give an acceptance speech, so I thought I would go ahead and
give one today.
I want to thank all of those people who worked on the project
with me. But I’m not going to name you
now because I’ve already thanked each and every one of you in person.
I want to thank my wonderful wife. I want to thank all my friends and family,
and there are too many to name now, but they know how much they mean to me.
What a fun year that Senior Year was. I remember that first discussion test which
shocked us, in that only 4 of us passed.
Some of my classmates had never failed a test before and I remember
their dismay, but it was like a college level exam, and we were instantly
better prepared for college.
I remember that we broke up into groups of four to reenact a
Shakespearean play. Steve Woodfield,
Jerry McCullough, Jeff Jenkins and I did Hamlet, and we were great, if I do say
so. We decided to have a little fun, and
we got the class to vote for some awards.
We had a ceremony and gave out our awards for acting. We called them "the Roycie’s." We crafted the awards out of a block of wood,
and put a red pen on it, because Mr. Ladner was deadly with a red pen as we had
already found out on that test and many others.
I’m pretty sure Jeff got best actor in the class, Hamlet got best play, and
we gave Mr. Ladner a special merit award for his reading of Beowulf, which was
a thing of grossness unlike anything we had ever heard before. But once you heard him read it, you never
forgot it. Can’t even tell you how many
correct Jeopardy answers I’ve gotten from it.
He made us memorize a sonnet, and I can still remember most
of it. I can’t find my keys half the
time, I can’t remember who won last year’s World Series, but I can still
compare thee to a summer’s day.
Royce Ladner died Tuesday.
I’m not sure I ever even saw him after I graduated, so this
is an inadequate thank you. I know
little about him except that he was a great teacher. I certainly never forgot his class, nor its
impact on me. Teachers and coaches are
underappreciated in our society, but we all know that. They bring varying degrees of passion and
dedication, and on every payday they are reminded that we undervalue them. But they all make a difference, some big and
some small. They can’t all be as effective and memorable as Mr. Ladner was at English
and Literature during the 1970-71 school year, but that’s perfectly fine. The fact that they choose a life of teaching
is pretty amazing.
I’m not good at clichés so I’m not going to say “Rest in
Peace Mr. Ladner” because I’m not sure what that means, and I’m not going to say “You
will be missed” because I think that’s a given.
So here’s the thing I most want to say to Mr. Ladner. “You made a difference.” Your life meant something, you impacted a lot
of people, many never forgot you, and I know I think of your standards
often - mostly when I see what passes for grammar on the internet.
It would turn you into Beowulf.
Goodbye and Thanks.
