Saturday, March 20, 2021
Mr. van Dorn was my physical science teacher in 9th grade. I was blessed to have him as my physics class in 11th grade, and physics II class in senior year. I was among the first Physics II class in our school, the 1988-1989 school year. Gosh! I have so many memories of those classes. I can;'t share them all here. But I was one of the less popular/cool students and Mr. van Dorn always made me feel special, and encouraged my creativity all the time! I never seemed to be paying attention but I always was absorbing the lessons while drawing in class. It's partly how I tested so well. Mr. van Dorn stood up for me against a class bully; I'll never forget that. Somewhere in my possessions, I have a special cassette tape of one of his classes. It was Physics II mid-term time in January 1989, and I had another engagement. So my classmate, Tim, used my tape recorder and recorded the midterm prep class notes for me. I still have that tape with his lecture, somewhere. I will have to find it again. I'm so sorry for the loss of a man who so influenced me, and it couldn't have been at a worse time. I've been developing a role-playing game based on 1980s high school students. Memories of science class returned to me, and I went to look up Mr. van Dorn. Sadly, I learned he not only died, but did so recently that I can never have the opportunity to say hi to him again. The last time I saw him was in 2001, when I delivered pizza to his home, and chatted with him for about 10 minutes. It wasn't good a good idea job-wise, but that time sure was worth being late for the next delivery. I'll surely miss Mr. van Dorn, but he'll be looking down at me, seeing the mark he left on my life. I'll never forget you, my favorite teacher!
