This week I heard of the passing of Mr. Ron Boynton and I think he would be surprised as I was of the number of memories that I had of the man that had a distinct impact on me.  First of all, Mr. Boynton was the Assistant Head Master at Lincoln Academy  in Newcastle, Maine from about 1979 until the early 90’s.  This was a pretty thankless job from what I could see.  He spent all of his time punishing kids who were operating on the wrong side of the school rules, and I don’t think many students liked being caught doing whatever they were doing wrong.  I will touch on how he handled the job later.  There are two distinct interactions with Mr. Boynton that immediately jump to the front of my mind and for very different reasons.

The first incident occured during my freshman year of high school.  I remember I had a substitute teacher in English class and we were headed to the library to do some interesting project, when I and one of my classmates thought it would be a great opportunity to sneak away from the rest of the class and go shoot baskets in the gym.  It seemed like a good idea until, I heard Mr. Boynton’s voice across the gym asking us what we thought we were doing, and inviting us to enjoy the comforts of his office for the rest of the afternoon.  As a fifteen year old kid, I was like any other kid I think, just trying to figure out where I fit in in the world.  I had no idea.  This event sticks with me because I know I deserved the punishment I got, which I don’t even remember, but I remembered the talk Mr. Boynton had with me.  I can’t say for sure what the exact words were, but the gist of the conversation was, “You seem like a good kid most of the time, except for when you do stupid things.  Stop doing stupid things and go to class.”  I never skipped another class until I was a senior.

It was that second skip that is the second thought of Mr. Boynton that comes to mind.  Toward the end of my senior year, I was involved in an incident with several classmates, where an acquaintance of ours was tragically killed in an auto accident.  It affected me pretty deeply because of how I was involved.  It occurred during April vacation, so when we returned to school the following Monday, they pulled all together.   I thought I was hiding what I was feeling pretty good, but I really didn’t know how I was going to make it through this day, trying to pay attention and learn anything.  That is when Mr. Boynton found me, not a group of people but me specifically, and told me that perhaps I should just take a couple of classes off and get it together, he would take care of everything else.  The irony of the request was lost on me at the time, but today, I remember the obvious wisdom and compassion with heartfelt gratitude.

I was just one of thousands of kids that had contact with Mr. Boynton over his long career, and I am sure that there were many more who knew him better than me and were closer to him.  I think that personally I would like to commend him for performing his job with dignity, consistency, caring and professionalism in the four years that I was a student at Lincoln Academy.  My sympathies go out to his family and friends, who surely must be feeling the loss of this man.  Most importantly I would like to say thank you to a man who made a subtle, long lasting impact on many kids including myself.