Garner goes up, up and away to retirement
After 42 years of encouraging his students to reach for the stars, John Garner soared off into retirement Thursday morning.
Garner, a popular science teacher who came to Greencastle High School in 1984 after 10 years at Cloverdale, climbed into the small gondola of a Stars and Heights hot-air balloon, soared above the GHS parking lot and floated off to the west as dozens of family members, students and fellow teachers cheered him just after dawn.
"I've never seen anybody leave that way," GHS Principal Russ Hesler offered. "What a way for a science teacher to go out."
The dream of a hot-air balloon retirement ride has been in the back of Garner's mind for quite a while, he admitted.
"I decided about 20 years ago I wanted to do this," Garner said, accepting repeated congratulations on his retirement as he spoke.
Garner mentioned that he had a niece who had a boyfriend who was a hot-air balloon enthusiast who floated across the sky all over the world. But they broke up before the teacher's retirement neared.
Another friend had a buddy with a balloon but he sold it and moved to Florida before Garner could catch a ride with him.
"So I just looked it up on the Internet," Garner said, coming away with the name of Stars and Heights, a Greenfield company that was informative and entertaining as it readied the balloon to send Garner along on his big adventure.
With the balloon properly inflated and Garner and the crew crowded into the gondola, liftoff came quickly as the balloon soared above the student parking lot, leaving no time for a goodbye speech a la the departing Wizard in the "Wizard of Oz."
Paying no attention to the man who shouted in jest, "there's a lot of hot air in that balloon," Garner instead was preoccupied with aiming his camera at those assembled on the ground to encourage his ascent.
"I was amazed at how fast it went up," Principal Hesler said.
While the balloon seemed to drift southwesterly, it ultimately landed in Parke County, providing Garner plenty of opportunity for great photos as it drifted over wildlife and beautiful countryside below.
"I had a great time," Garner told the Banner Graphic after coming back to earth Thursday afternoon. "The day was perfect.
"Greencastle truly is a Tree City," he added. "We traveled west and saw deer and birds and trees and more trees.
Back on the ground, Principal Hesler acknowledged Garner's retirement will leave some big shoes to fill at GHS.
"He truly touched a lot of students' lives here at Greencastle high School," he praised.
Garner helped integrate environmental studies into the school and spearheaded ways to "go green" both at GHS and within the community. He continued that as recently as the Farmers' Market when he and his students were passing out free trees to attendees.
Garner's Environmental Science group conducted Big Walnut Creek clean-ups on a regular basis, removing items like old tires, inoperable appliances and discarded furniture unceremoniously dumped along the creek by thoughtless residents. It's served as a down-and-dirty lesson in respect for the environment.
"He taught a lot of kids a number of life lessons beyond science," Hesler noted. "It's important to see a teacher who not only talks the talk but walks the walk."
And Garner will have more talking to do before his duties at Greencastle High School are done.
He will be speaking at GHS graduation ceremonies Friday night, having been chosen by the senior class as the faculty speaker for the occasion.
"I have enjoyed the last 42 years as a teacher," Garner concluded. "I don't know of anything I would have rather done."
As far as his own future goes, Garner said he has "no big plans at the moment."
You might say his future is ... up in the air.