Jack Neuhauser and the Art of Serendipity by Susan Salter Reynolds
“M
ost of my life has been unplanned.” Jack Neuhauser, poised on the brink of his return to civilian life, is lighthearted and a bit nostalgic. His life may not look unplanned on paper, but life never does (there’s a lesson in here for young minds).
THANK YOU, MR. METZ
Jack was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island. His list of jobs included delivery boy for a local drugstore, operating his own lawn-cutting business, and
“ W E DO N O T F O L L O W MAP S TO BUR I ED T R E A S U R E , A N D ‘X ’ NE VE R, EV ER M A R K S T H E S P O T. ” — Indiana Jones
working as a runner on Wall Street. Each position, no matter the common perception of importance or compensation, had an impact on who he was to become. One experience in his junior
year of high school had a lasting effect on how Jack treats people. He had appendicitis and couldn’t take the final math exam. His teacher, Mr. Metz, chose not to factor that into Jack’s final grade, although he clearly had performed well all semester. Mr. Metz failed Jack on the final. Jack didn’t complain, even though it left him with an undeserved C- in trigonometry, but he never forgot the injustice. His future students, and those who have worked for him, can be grateful to Mr. Metz for making Jack a more empathetic teacher and leader. Thanks to math, Jack’s GPA wasn’t that good. A counselor pointed out that Jack was skilled at physics — a good call. Jack got his B.S. in Physics at Manhattan College. “I went to college with little ambition,” Jack admits, but he did learn how to study during his first years in college, and his grades got better. On the long subway commute, he would read and do crossword puzzles. Both made him a better student. The 80 physics majors in his class whittled down to 13. Jack was one of them. He was a shy student, and he recalls raising his hand twice in his college career, both times in a probability class.
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