Chapter 14: A Man for All Seasons

His first question in that old building near a residential area not far from downtown Columbus, Ohio was, “How can a research journal improve practice in middle schools?” I am sure my answer had something to do with compelling teachers and school leaders to make data-based decisions because that was the “buzz” back in 1994. Regardless, after reading his opinions on middle school matters for 2 decades, interviewing with John Lounsbury and members of the Publications Committee for the editorship of the National Middle School Association’s (NMSA) journal, Research in Middle Level Education was daunting. Ironically, it was Dr. Lounsbury who put me at ease in that old room in that old building in Columbus, Ohio, which housed the NMSA headquarters. His kind, caring, respectful manner instantly endeared him to the (at that time) young upstart fresh from the University of California’s Educational Research Laboratory.