SmithWriting Blog

At some point in our lives, we all encounter that one teacher who inspires us.

For me, it was the fourth grade and he was Mr. Donahue. He taught me to love words.

Mr. Donahue was witty, smart, and quick-tempered. He had a thick mustache and a deep voice. And he had the driest sense of humor of anyone I ever met. Who knows how many of his jokes were lost on us, his preadolescent audience.

He was a week-long champion on Jeopardy!, and he always quizzed us kids with fun trivia. I owe my lifelong obsession with that show to Mr. Donahue. At the time I remember thinking that he must be the smartest man in the world (in comparison, I was averaging about one correct answer per game).

Mr. Donahue had us do the newspaper Jumble every morning. Not the Junior Jumble, either. I mean the real deal. He’d print the puzzle on the board and have whoever finished it first walk up to solve it. I made it my 9-year-old life’s mission to get to that board as often as possible.

I’ll never forget the morning he walked in—very dramatically—and proceeded to the leftmost point on the board, where he slowly wrote the lowercase letter “a.” Then, in complete silence, he walked to the far right side of the board and wrote the word “lot.” I don’t think he ever actually said, “‘A lot’ is two words, not one.” But he didn’t have to. It was the best grammar lesson I’ve ever received.

Mr. Donahue passed away two years ago. After he retired from teaching, he spent his time volunteering at the local hospital, putting a smile on the faces of people who really needed one.

Why he devoted the bulk of his life to teaching fourth graders, I’ll never know, but there are hundreds of graduates of George J. Peters Elementary School who are glad he did. I know I’m one of them. Thanks, Mr. Donahue. Thanks a lot.

Filed by rebecca at 8:34 am under For the love of words