Thomas O'Nan:
CLASS OF 1974
Broad Ripple High School 717Class of 1974
Indianapolis, IN
Indiana University - Radiologic TechnologyClass of 1980
Indianapolis, IN
Merle Sidener Middle School 559Class of 1970
Indianapolis, IN
Thomas's Story
Do I have to?
OK, here's the gist of me and my Life!?
Let's see, I've been around a lot. Moved to Terre Haute for a while (lost 10 IQ points there). Then I moved back to Broad Ripple (got the IQ points back too). I went to Purdue, IUPUI and IU Medical School, since then I've become sort of a rogue scholar, working in one profession and following another. I spent a few years just touring Indiana, found out that it's a wonderful place, if you know where to look. I used to be a photographer, but now I'm a radiographer. I'm still involved in music, the Scout Band is 93 years old, and I've been in it now for 43 years. I've been back to BRHS several times over the past few years, it's changed some and hasn't changed some. Had a GREAT time at the Golden Singers Grand Reunion and Tribute to Gene Poston! If you haven't bought the DVD, you should!
School:
I never realized that after a certain point in your education, you didn't have to go to school anymore. I've been to several colleges, I received several degrees, then all of a sudden, I found out I could still keep going and stay home (I didn't). It just takes a little longer to do. It's addictive now, I can't get enough, if I stop, my brain will turn to mush, but who knows, if I don't stop, it might explode :)
Travel:
Well, as a result of one or another of the schools I've been involved with, I had the chance to do some travel early on, so I did it "For Science" you might say. I went to the arctic and worked on some some very interesting radio telescopes they have in Greenland. There is nothing so beautiful as going outside at noon, it's dark and -60 and the sky is full of the northern lights and stars! Look up into the Indy sky at night and you can probably count a few hundred stars. Up there, the sky was full, and bright!
OK, so now I've retired, didn't want to, but it had to happen sometime.
My Dad, Edward H. O'Nan, Math Department BRHS.
For those of you who think I am him :)
Many BRHS alumni remember my Dad as one of their te...Expand for more
achers, some remember fondly, others, not so much. He was always remembered to me as tough and fair by his students. Dad taught at BRHS from around 1956 to the mid 80's when he retired. Before that he taught at many places, including the now closed Indiana Boys School in Plainfield. Dad was the only breadwinner in the family and chose to take on as many jobs as he could at IPS, so you would have found him teaching math, counseling, both day and night school, teaching night school, being vice principle of the night school, and taking your money at the basketball and foot ball games. Dad passed away a couple of years ago at the age of 82, many of his students attended the funeral, a couple of them from WWII that learned from him in the Army Air Force. He is well remembered.
Time well spent:
I take as much time as I can to help out with the Scouts, I'm going on 43 years with the Crossroads of America Scout Band and as long as they are there, I hope to be too. I can't tour with them anymore due to my disabilities, but I will practice and play at any concerts I can get to.
I can occasionally be seen in my front yard at 3am with one of my telescopes, years of looking at the stars with a computer image taken through a telescope just wasn't enough. So I got my own and started looking at the stars I know so well with my own eyes, all I need to do is get Glendale and Castleton to turn off their lights at night so I can see what I want to. Still trying to catch the Space Station in the telescope.
If I'm not doing that, I'm sitting at my radio station (N9CXI, I'm sure that there are a few other hams from BRHS).
Take care and have fun! Even if you can't get out, get around ;)
Doc
ps. I got my nickname when I lived in Terre Haute, not because of a PhD or two I have sitting around here someplace, but because I ran one of the early, pre-internet computer bulletin boards, it was based on the Doctor Who TV show, and that was it, I was Doc :)
And I still have 16488 characters remaining..........
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