Chuck Proctor:  

Hello Friends and Classmates, Years ago I saw my ranking in our graduating class and I was, as I remember it, dead smack average. I was the 5th of 10 children, so it seemed right that I should be average. At graduation I was like many other guys our age with no particular/specific plans about conquering the world except to wish I’d could be a rock star. That wasn’t likely because it would have required at least a modicum of talent—desire alone wasn’t going to cut it. Except for teachers in school, I didn’t know anyone who had gone to college. I knew a few of you smarter/better looking/financially better off ones were going there, but I was smart enough to know for me that wasn’t realistic. I figured I’d get a job, probably a mechanic, and live an average life where I could enjoy cars, motorcycles, and hope to take a road trip now and then. I don’t recall learning much about fate, choice, and dumb luck while in high school, but since then these things have loomed large in my life. As fate would have it, I started Ohlone College on a whim prompted by a discussion with a friend while sitting in his car during a break while working at a textile factory. He said he was leaning to fly. While simultaneously taking a bite of a burrito and a gulp of Pepsi I retorted: “What? You mean… like an airplane?”. “Yes”, he said and in that moment I became a little indignant and said “…well if you can do it, I can do it!”. Lucky for me he was able to explain that Ohlone had a ground school and other aviation classes. I won’t bore you with my academic stumblings, but oblige me for a moment because I want to call attention to another classmate-- perhaps more importantly his father. All during our high school days his father was rebuilding a small aircraft they had bent up a few years earlier. Portions of the plane were in the garage, patio, living room—totally cool as far as I was concerned. I was visiting this friend when his father came home after work, my/our friend mentioned, “Hey dad, guess what? Chuck’s taking ground school up a Ohlone”. His father replied with a “Well you know, I’m gonna’ get the airplane back in the air soon, and when I retire I want to be a flight instructor. That means I’m going to need a first student….if you want to...Expand for more