PARKER, Colo. — There are substitute teachers who show up to class and turn on a movie. Then there are subs who find so much enjoyment in the classroom they may never quit.
Tom Graves is one of those people who always seeks out excitement. At 82, he doesn't have to still be teaching about valence electrons. He’s in the classroom nearly every day at Legend High School in Douglas County because high school chemistry is still exhilarating.
"It’s the highlight of the day for me. It truly is. I enjoy it," he said.
Whatever the qualifications are to be a substitute teacher at Legend, everyone knows he’s far surpassed them.
"Mr. Graves is a rockstar," said Rachel Stewart, a teacher at Legend. "It’s incredible to see him in the classroom every single day."
"We all love to hear him tell stories, and he’s got some great stories to tell," said Cindy Jones, the administrative assistant to the principal. "He runs a tight ship. He expects students to listen, to learn."
Before he was "Mr. Graves," Tom started as a 20-something-year-old engineer working on nearly every NASA mission for more than two decades.
"I would describe my time as a kid in a candy shop," Tom said. "We were doing some of the most exciting things that one could imagine back then. This was something that I’d never dreamed I’d have an opportunity to do."
His wife Johnnie knows he helped write the history that his students now read about in textbooks.
"Some of them are so far removed from that sort of doing anymore," Johnnie said. "If it’s not on a phone, is it real? I think he makes it real."
Tom's decades at NASA put him in mission control when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. He was there for the Challenger tragedy. He’s seen it all.
"For Apollo we flew a series of experiments," he said, pointing to a table full of memories and keepsakes he has from NASA. "I have here a flag that flew on Columbia in 1981."
Tom Graves' NASA keepsakes
Tom doesn't want to retire. He's found excitement in the classroom.
"After finally retiring from all these exciting careers, I decided I needed something to occupy my time. I don’t golf," he joked. "Substitute teaching seemed like a good opportunity and I’ve enjoyed that now for the past 12 years."
Tom found the same purpose in a high school classroom as he did in a NASA control room.
"I actually learned a lot here," he said inside the chemistry classroom at the high school. "Things that I have never encountered before in my lifetime."
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