The Winged Post: What is the most memorable moment you’ve had as a teacher or administrator – funny or poignant?

Greg Lawson: The best moment for me was at my previous school when I was asked to be the baccalaureate speaker for the class of ’93, the boys that I had advised since they were sophomores. The touching moment was that it was held at the chapel at the school, and it was a fun, unspoken tradition at the time that you never clap or acknowledge the speaker. You just don’t. It was just one of those things that finishes and everyone stays silent, […] but when I finished, the boys stood up and applauded. It was totally unexpected because I’ve been there five to six years, and I’ve never seen that. It blew me away. I still remember that 17 years later, so that was the most touching moment.

WP: How focused were you on basketball growing up?
GL: The neighbors would say that all they remember about me was me bouncing that ball until ten o’clock at night in my backyard or leaving on my bike first thing in the mornings on Saturdays to go to the local gym and play. That was my life.

WP: Tell us about your experience playing basketball in college. Why did you quit?
GL: I started at Pepperdine University. I was the only walk-on for the 1972-1973 team. I then transferred to another school to play more basketball and basically gave it up a year [later] because it was taking away too much time. I realized that I wasn’t utilizing my time well in college, and when I realized that my dream of playing professional basketball wasn’t going to happen, I had to get my head back around and start going to school for the right reasons.

WP: What inspired you to pursue education? What did you think you wanted to be when you were growing up?
GL: I actually came to education pretty late. I was in private business for a number of years, but I coached. My high school basketball coach gave me a job coaching the freshman team the summer I graduated from high school. I enjoyed it so much that I ignored the vocation [of teaching], and it wasn’t until many years later that I suddenly realized that this was what I should have been doing all along. A lot of my friends were parents that had trouble communicating with teenagers, but for whatever the reason, it came relatively natural to me. Kindergarteners scared me to death, but teenagers were okay for me. The realization that this was what I should have been doing all along was what got me to do it.

WP: What led you to begin teaching?
GL: I was in business for myself doing publications and things like that, and then I started coaching for one of the schools. Then, they needed someone to teach computer science over the summer. At the time, I was very good at it, […] and that was the first time I ever taught. Before I went straight to full-time in education, I started as a director of publications in a boarding school. I wasn’t there to be a teacher, but it was a boarding school, so it was very typical for them […] to [say] ‘Oh, you should coach.’ And then, ‘Oh, you should be an advisor,’ so I started being an advisor for a class. And a year after that, they needed a director of the boarding residential program. I hadn’t even worked in the dormitory before.

WP: What group did you hang out with in high school?
GL: There weren’t a lot of cliques at my high school, but growing up in Southern California going to a vocational high school, I hung out with the jocks. I was a basketball player. That was all I really wanted to do.

WP: What was your proudest moment in high school?
GL: I don’t have too many proudest moments in high school to be honest. Academically I was a pretty average student, but I took chemistry my junior year, and I was one of the top three students in the grade in chemistry. That was the first time I ever won an academic award like that. At the time, being a commended National Merit Scholar was a big deal for me too.

WP: What is the spontaneous experience you’ve ever had?
GL: One day, I woke up in the morning and decided that I wanted to go gliding. I drove off to the desert and took a gliding lesson.

WP: What is your biggest fear?
GL: I have two pretty strong fears: heights and poisonous snakes.

WP: What is your biggest vice?
GL: Dr. Pepper. That sounds kind of weird, but that probably is my biggest vice. I drink way too much. I drink probably at least three to four 16-oz bottles a day. It’s embarrassing to say it out loud. I tried to go on Diet Coke for a while, but I always come back [to Dr. Pepper].

WP: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
GL: In my first quarter of high school, I flunked two classes. They were silly classes, but when the report card came home, I still recall sitting in the kitchen with my mom and my dad. My mom basically said ‘if you want to go to college, you will have to go on some kind of scholarship or earn your way, because we’re not paying for it. If you want to sit and get crummy grades you can go ahead but you better pull your head out of the wazoo and do your work.’ That was the only time my parents ever had to talk to me about work. As a ninth grader, they basically laid out what the goal was, and I ended up getting various kinds of scholarships, so whatever they said stuck.

WP: What talent do you wish you were born with?

GL: I wish I were born with musical talent. I would love to be a guitar player in a rock band.

WP: If you had an extra hour every day, how would you spend it?
GL: That would probably be the hour when I exercise the way I know I should. I’ve got a hernia disk in my back, so I’m limited to non-impact sports. I can do stuff on treadmills, and I just have to make time to do that kind of thing because it’s important for my health.

WP: Do you miss basketball?
GL: Yeah, huge[ly]. Routinely when I worked at my last couple schools, I used to play with the kids all the time. I hurt myself [six or seven years ago] in a community service project. We were clearing a field and river rock boulders away from oak trees. I picked up one that was too heavy, and I blew a disk.

WP: What is your biggest pet peeve?
GL: [There are] two things that really bother me, but I may be guilty of them myself. One, impatient people and [two,] people who just refuse to listen.

WP: Tell us about your dogs.
GL: When my wife and I moved to the boarding school, it was my chance to have a dog, so I got Reggie when he was a puppy. He was a Rhodesian Ridgebackm about 120 pounds when he was full[y] grown. He passed away our third month here, and for a big dog, that was a long time. I have grandchildren from my wife’s side but no children of my own, so he was like our child. A friend of ours got on a website and found us another dog at a shelter close by her. […] Her name is Rosie. She’s like the little baby in the family although she is now five already. We got her when she was two.

WP: What is number one on your bucket list?
GL: Amazingly, I am 55, going on 56 in a couple months, and I’ve never been to Europe. I know my wife and I have to go do that. When I went with the kids to China couple years ago, that was the first time I’ve ever been further than Mexico.