I often look back to the people who have touched my life over the years. How lucky I was to have these persons help me and teach me important things! These include my parents, teachers, co-workers and bosses.

While going through life, you never really know if or when you may have taught something important to someone else.

My VoAg teacher, Robert Fuller, was a very big influence on my life. He was a very tall man who had a very calm way to talk to everyone. If I was upset, flustered, or just having a bad day, his way of talking to me made me realize that maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

Mr. Fuller helped me get my first real job, working as a meat cutter at the US store in downtown Delaware. Ron Trimble was the meat manager there. He was such a good boss who taught me a lot about the meat business. He became a very good friend. Jim Kern, the owner of the US store, treated me like a son. While I was dealing with the public later in life, I used some of the things he had helped me with.

At the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, I worked with so many persons who helped me, and we became friends. I have to say that Sheriff Lavery taught me how to deal with stress. He was a very good investigator, and I learned a lot just watching him work. Deputy David Weiser showed me how to write up complaints as well as to look up the right laws when necessary. Rick Inglish and Mike Askew worked with me and became fast friends that lasted to today. They are people who would drop anything to come and help anytime and anyplace. I also want to say that at one time, the second shift guys were some of the best people I had ever worked with. We made a lot of arrests together, and you knew they always had your back.

There were times I had to question myself. There didn’t seem to be anything I could do that made much of a difference.

After I retired and was doing some charity work, I met a young man who was a manager at a local business. We started talking and he realized who I was. He told me that about 20 years earlier, he had been a young man heading down the wrong path. But because of how I interacted with him, I had helped him to change his life.

You just never know that what you say to someone may be helping them in some way. Or just by being nice to someone, you can touch their lives. So, to all those people who have helped me over the years, I can never thank you enough. We could all use a little peace.