My title may seem strange, but I want it to emphasize the uniqueness of this gentleman.

I met John C. Adams in 1938 when I was about 12 years old.  I used to tag along with my twin cousins, Cledith and Pat Bourdeau, who were in high school.  Mr. A was a young teacher, and then, as now, his students flocked to him.  That day I remember lying on his living room floor with the big boys.  My personal relationship with him started in 1942 when i took his Chemistry class.  By that time he was also the Principal of the high school.  It was war time, and by the end of the year he was also teaching my Geometry and Algebra II classes as the math teacher had been drafted.  The next year he taught my Physics and Trigonometry classes.  He was probably still teaching Chemistry, but he must have had help with some courses.

He said that he was a C student at the University of California in Berkeley.  Remember that C was average then.  In today's era of grade inflation it would be a B or better.  He did not study Chemistry, but took courses in that subject to qualify as that was the best job available in those depression years.  Possibly because of Mr. A I studied chemistry and eventually spent 40 years messing about in laboratories.  I do not know if anyone else called him Mr. A, but I always have.  Although he claimed to be a mediocre student, he was the best teacher I ever had.  Better my far than than the highly regarded University professors I had later.  I have always thought that it was because he was an ordinary student he understood how young minds work, and could teach to that type of mind.  It seemed to me that the "big professors" tried to make things seem difficult, rather than make them as simple as possible.  Could it be that it helped their feelings of self worth?  I believe that Mr. A gets his self worth from his humanity, and does not need anything else.

On the other hand, Mr. A might have been putting us on, as he seemed pretty smart to me, and he tended to kid around.  He certainly was smart in the ways of young people.  The school was small with less than 200 students in the three year high school in Coalinga California.  He knew every one of us, and it seemed to me that he took a special interest in us all.  He spent most of his noon hours keeping the boys busy at games of strength and agility or something that would lessen the possibility of trouble.

I wonder if you could find an administrator of a 90's school, no matter how small, who would teach four or five classes, run the school, and organize activities to keep the young ones busy.  He even took the football coaches practices when he was ill, and was the announcer at games.

He was an excellent disciplinarian.  On one occasion i harassed a teacher unfairly.  She sent me to the office , and all he did was ask me if I was proud of myself.  You know it was the last time I did anything that might meet with his disapproval.

I don't know how he treated other students, but he was very good to me.  He arranged for me to attend Boys State where boys from every school go to the state Capitol at Sacramento and play at running the government.  He also helped me get a good job in a service station.  Yet if I thought I was pretty hot stuff he would say something to bring me back to earth.  I was a lousy basketball player, but one day he was standing in the gym with my cousin Cledith who was home on army leave.  Here were two very special people, so I put on my Michael Jordan imitation (20 years before that phenomenon was born), and drove the lane for a lay-up.  Mr. A made a comment and I was the third stringer I had always been.  I don't remember his words, but I know it was funny and not a put-down.  At the end of my junior year he dropped by the service station to ask if I would be at the graduation ceremonies that night.  It turned out that I was to get an award, and he wanted to be sure I would be there to get it.  Still he had a way of keeping me from getting a large opinion of myself, to the extent that I was surprised that I did as well as I did in my college courses.  Later I taught college chemistry for a while, and was impressed with the number of students that had inflated expectations from being successful at small schools.  Mr. A saw to it that it did not happen to us.  I probably received bs or better in math and science because I was prepared by Mr. A.

I entered the Navy in January 1944, and did not return to Coalinga after the war.  I don't remember that I saw him again until 1994.  I don't know the whole story, but I heard that he resigned his position shortly after the war ended.  He had inherited his father's farm in Selma California, about 60 miles from Coalinga.  He continued to operate his farm until he was in his 80s.  His resignation was a great loss to the young of Coalinga.

Those of us who were lucky enough to be taught by him still regularly invite him to reunions.  He was present at my 50th reunion.  he came up to me and covered his name tag asking if I knew who he was.  Of course I was tempted to throw the guy out the door as I hate that practice because I have a poor memory for names and faces.  I guessed he was one of my class mates, and he was actually in his mid 80s not 68 like most of us.  That was the best reunion of my life. He also attends functions of my cousins' class.  I talked to one of my childhood friends, Dale Heryford, recently, and he said that Mr. A was at a reunion of his class last year and seemed very active.  I received a list of the remaining members of my class and it was headed by John Adams.  No other teacher, some of whom were very good, had the same relationship.

I have not been around a school for some time, but 20 years ago in my sons' school there was no one like Mr. A.  From what I read in the papers, administrators no longer teach.  Of course now there are a lot of time consuming regulations.  Also Coalinga was small and had a superintendent of schools who did much of the administrative work.  Still times have not changed that much, Mr. A would be the worlds best teacher if he was in his twenties today.  He, with my father and grand father, were the most important influences in my young life, and all to the better.  The three of them taught me how to be a responsible adult, and prepared me for a long and pretty good life.  I will be eternally grateful to this wonderful man.  If I live that long.