It's "National Teacher Appreciation Week": Here's My Favorite Teacher Story

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week, and I'd like you to meet my favorite teacher of my entire educational life:

Russ Jackson was my teacher at Palomar College who taught Radio 101 and ran the college radio station KSM with his students.

Russ Jackson's radio courses lead to literally hundred of students getting into the radio field with great careers- even though in his early teachings he'd give you all the reasons to NOT go after a career in radio. But for those of us who had it in our blood, Russ knew that his direction would send us off on our professional journey. We don't call it a career- we call it a lifestyle.

I could present a list of major radio talent that all came from what we referred to as "The Russ Jackson School of Broadcasting", but I'd rather tell you a story about The Russ Jackson Retirement Party....

There were about a half dozen of us who decided we wanted to show our appreciation to the man who was responsible for so many of us getting into broadcasting, by taking him to dinner when he announced his retirement. Word got out of what we were planning and in no time we went from a dinner party to a full banquet room of former students all wanting to attend and publicly thank Russ for his contribution to all of their careers.

There were public speakers, comedians, and mostly radio personalities all getting on the mic to tell their story of how Russ gave them the right advice and guidance at just the right time to get them going in their careers. I was one of those very thankful students.

Below are photos of that retirement dinner.

Russ is still around...still retired, but always ready to talk about the radio business or whatever project he is working on....and I'll bet he still has his actual list of all those students...who became successful broadcasters all do to his knowledge, guidance, and patience over the years.

Thank you Russ Jackson- Best Teacher Ever!