As a retired teacher (Thornton Academy, 1975 to 2007, and University of Southern Maine’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, 2010 to 2020), I enjoyed reading about a Sanford teacher – Bill Ferguson – who turned a student on to poetry and changed that student’s life by enriching it (“Maine Voices: Remember the inestimable power of a good and caring teacher,” Sept. 21).

I had a similar experience with an old English teacher who looked, for all the world, like Ichabod Crane – until one day he read aloud the Maine poet Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory” and changed my life forever.

As a teacher, you just never know who’s listening – I was sitting in the back of the room with my feet up on the desk in front of me and gazing out the window. I heard my teacher, Ed Fitzpatrick, read the last line of “Richard Cory,” and I haven’t stopped reading since.

Chris Queally
Scarborough

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