Kendall Langley

Everyone who has ever attended a public school has had a substitute teacher. They are pillars in our school system. They stand in when they are needed most and keep the schools running. But who are these subs? We see them all around campus, but never for very long.
This is the story of one Rolla Public Schools substitute teacher, Gary Young, and his journey from a farm boy, to a military police officer, to an educator.
“I grew up in southwest Iowa…on a farm. Parents back in the sixties and seventies were extremely poor. I knew that I wanted to go to college…and I didn’t have much money, so it seemed to me, the smartest thing to do was enlist in the army and let the military and the government pay for it, and they did. That’s how I got my degree.”
After basic training, Young was sent to work as a military police officer (MP) in Germany.
“I was expected to enforce military law at eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one years old, and I was kind of a rabble-rouser in school. I didn’t get into a lot of trouble, but you know, I had my fun, and I found that you grow up quick. You have to. And, for me, it was the best decision. Even if I had not wanted to go into college, it wound up being the best decision for me because it did make me mature. And it did show me a different side of life that I probably wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.”
After retiring from the military, Young decided that he wanted to start his career in education. He planned to teach at a military school in Europe, but that job required two years of prior experience. So, Young set off on a job hunt.
“My ultimate goal was to go back to Europe and teach in the Department of Defense schools in either Germany, Belgium, or Italy because I really enjoyed Europe when I was there. So the placement office at Northwest Missouri State called me and said, ‘There’s a last minute teacher placement day at St. Louis University in St. Louis. We think you should go over to it,’…and I…went to the St. Louis University gym…I walked in, and the first table to my right was Waynesville…When I got up and I handed my resume off, Irv Morris, one of the superintendents over there [at Waynesville], he said, ‘You were an MP,’… And he told me a little bit about the school, and I thought the interview was going pretty good…He wanted me to come to the school and look, and I know it was because of military police, and I was going to teach military kids. So I went over the next day and interviewed with them, and they offered me a job.”
Young credits a lot of the opportunities he has received to his time in the armed forces.
Young accepted the job offer at Waynesville High School. Waynesville is a hub for military families, so a lot of Young’s students came from that background.
“You’ll find with the military kids, they’ve been everywhere. You’d have some kids that have been in the Philippines, they’ve been in Guam, they’ve been in Puerto Rico, they’ve been in Europe.”
Instead of travelling to Europe to teach at a Department of Defense school, Young and his wife decided to settle in Rolla and continue with their respective careers. As time went on, Young became more and more involved with his work in Waynesville.
“Not only did I teach, I was the activities director, and I did that for twenty-five years. I coached football, I coached wrestling…and I did activities, which was all the dances, graduation, prom, homecoming, blood drives, fundraising, just about everything.”
Eventually Young retired from teaching. But soon after, a call to action interrupted his break.
“Dr. Fulton was the principal at the [Rolla] Junior High. I’d known Dr. Fulton for probably thirty years, because she was working over at Waynesville. She…had called me and asked me if I could sub and I’m thinking, ‘That’s not what I want to do. I spent my time in education. Let’s go someplace else,’ but they really needed somebody. So I said, ‘Well, I’ll do it today,’ and it just kind of morphed into, I kept going in…it gave me some purpose. I enjoyed teaching.”
Young found a second home in education and plans to continue substitute teaching for as long as he can.