AFTER WATCHING "Mr. Holland's Opus" recently as it played on television and considering Mark Bundick's editorial in the Model Rocketeer, I was reminded of a teacher who really inspired me. Mr. Kayl Craig was our counselor in junior high school. His background was teaching science, and he really loved kids. He took on the task of leading a school rocket building class.

Our class eventually became a full-fledged rocket club. He continued to sponsor us, eventually arranging for the club to put on demonstrations for 7th and 8th grade science classes. We would take two full days, the first talking to each period about model rocketry, Newton's laws of motion, and showing off our hardware. The second day would be spent launching! What a life! A 13 year old's dream: two days out of school and getting credit for it!

Either word spread, or Mr. Craig advertised, but we started touring other schools in town, even putting on a demonstration for a summer teacher's workshop. I didn't realize it then, but many times Mr. Craig was buying engines out of his own pocket.

Out of this experience I developed a love for math, science, and engineering. Plus I developed skills to stand in front of a group and talk. Funny, I would freeze in front of english class giving a book report, but could go on for hours talking about rockets!

So Mr. Craig, where ever you are, thanks for giving a part of yourself, for taking the time to care.

David Stribling is regular flying rocketeer from the Oklahoma area. You may reach him by email at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .