Mr. Whitlatch was my first male teacher and really made going to school enjoyable. Sometimes we may have thought that we were getting him off task by getting him to share his wildlife stories, but he was really still teaching us and we didn't know that he was. The year with him made me, while in the sixth grade, decide that teaching was what I wanted to do. I recently retired after 44 years in the classroom, and I can't tell you how many of his strategies that I used over the years. He was a great teacher and motivator. My sympathy goes out to the family.