Mentor and Friend

Mentor and Friend

When I walked into school on the first day of 8^th grade in 1965, I had no idea of how my life would be forever altered by the time June arrived. This was the year that fate provided me with a life-changing mentor named Mr. Dale Meddock, who came to me disguised as a gym teacher.

In 7^th grade, the year before, I had been a member of a very exclusive club at Baden Economy High School called “The Weaklings Club”. This prestigious organization consisted of 5 similarly built students who would all agree today that positive reinforcement was not a regular part of the curriculum. To get into this club, one had to be unable to do a chin-up, push-up, parallel dip, or sit-up. A side-benefit of being in this club seemed to be the fact that everybody wanted to beat me up when we got off the bus. I recall people actually taking turns, and feeling sorry for my parents for having to watch my anguish.

When I met Mr. Meddock, rather than treating me as a lost cause, as previous teachers (and everyone else besides my parents for that matter) seemed to do, he instead set out to make me believe that I could be great. He told me that he wanted to place me into his exclusive Gym Leaders Club, but before I could join, I had to be able to do 9 consecutive chin-ups within three months. Keep in mind that at this point I could not even do one chin-up, but just the fact that I truly believed that Mr. Meddock believed that I was capable of the feat, instilled a new energy and ambition in me that I never knew I had. I became passionate about achieving this goal. I begged my parents to buy me a set of weights, but despite my best efforts and undying persistence they repeatedly and firmly said “no”. So I finally decided to use paper route earnings to secretly buy a set, which I had delivered to my aunt’s house so they wouldn’t know. Mr. Meddock gave me a weightlifting routine to follow, and I would sneak away 3 times each week to my Aunt’s house to follow the routine. Although my parents never gave into the weights, they finally agreed to install a chin-up bar for me in the back yard. I remember spending hours just hanging there and kicking, but before long I triumphantly managed my first chin-up. After three months of weight training and after-school chin-up sessions, the moment of truth arrived. I was scared to death because the night before I was only able to do 8 – just shy of the 9 chin-up requirement. However, I had such a rush of adrenaline resulting from the opportunity to prove Mr. Meddock right, that during the test I managed to do 14 of them.

The thing that Mr. Meddock taught me above all is that the person who I think I am is no match for the person I really am if I put in the hard work to get there. He taught me that if goals are set high enough, even falling short sets you way ahead of the pack. The chance to surpass competition comes when nobody wants to be working – a hot muggy day, a holiday, or any other excuse that all of us are tempted to use. The work ethic that he instilled in me, combined with the self-confidence that I achieved from reaching seemingly impossible goals, have impacted my entire life. I went on to set records in track, and to earn a college football scholarship. There is a very slim chance that I would have gone to college without a scholarship, and thus likely would not have had the opportunity to form the successful business that I now run. I like to think that he has positively affected the way I have raised my children, since I tried to instill the same values in them.

The amazing thing is that I am not an isolated example, but rather one of many that he has impacted in this way. What makes him so special and so effective at transforming his students? I believe it is that he genuinely cares about people and about helping them achieve their full potential. And for him it was never just about being a teacher – it was also about being a friend, especially to those who most needed one. I am proud to say that Mr. Meddock is still one of my best friends, and he continues to teach me today. One of the times I most look forward to each week is Tuesday night, when he and I meet in a woodshop, and he teaches me woodworking, along with many other lessons that I’m sure I often don’t even realize I’m learning.

John Edmondson