One of my favorite high school teachers, John Faile (no, seriously, that’s his name) passed away the other day.  He was an inspiration and challenged me like few other teachers did. Especially in Physics. I can honestly say he was an influence in my future career choice (the engineering part of it) and he was one of the most eclectic and interesting people I’ve ever known.

Once, he found I had an interest in classical fingerstyle guitar and he made me several tapes of Andres Segovia and some John Williams music. I remember the passion he had for teaching and creativity he put forth in it. Rather than simple word problems, his test questions read more like a narrative or story.

“John Wayne is positioned on a hill roughly 100 feet from a water tower, and his elevation was 54 feet below the tower’s height. There is an Indian campfire 12 feet to the left and 13 feet in front of the tower. If there are 10,000 gallons of water in the tower, and it’s diameter is 25 feet, where would he have to put a bullet in order to snuff out the Indian’s fire.”

That question was given to me on a test in 1994 and I still remember it (though I would struggle to answer it, now). He will be missed.  You can read his obituary here.