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A Thank-You Letter to a Former Teacher and Mentor

Dear Mr. Lambdin,

thank you for showing me how a man should act, and what a good man should look like. Thank you for investing your time and energy into me and others, simply because you cared about the spiritual and emotional development of young people. Thank you for joking with us, yet holding us accountable for our actions. Thank you for being willing to go beyond the typical teacher role, for being willing to share your life with us as people, to be genuine and unguarded despite your position of authority. Thank you for paying attention to me and laughing at my jokes. Thank you, more than anything, for not compromising your values, for living out what you believe, and for letting us see that about you. Thanks for your generosity and for bridging differences between people with your concern for us. You were (and are) respected by many of your former students, including me.

Sincerely,

Tony (class of '97)

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