By GILBERT HOFFMAN Northeast News
This is a story about two Agriculture teachers at North Forest High School, and the strange events one of them had after his retirement.
Last summer, after the school year ended, the AG teacher at North Forest (Smiley) high school, Bill Dodd, retired after 38 years. Normally, a person can expect a quiet, simple life after retirement. But Dodd’s life was just about to get more exciting, instead.
In the month following his retirement, he suffered injuries from a fall at a swimming pool. Dodd broke three ribs and dislocated his rotator cup in his shoulder. As in most rib injuries, the doctors just taped him up and sent him home.
Not a great way to start a retirement, he thought. But things were about to get worse.
In December, as he was checking his property, a 67 acre ranch near Leona in central Texas, he was accidentally shot by two hunters in an adjoining property. The bullet entered his back, travelling from left to right, and lodging in his right hip. Although bleeding, Dodd managed to drive himself to the neighboring land, where he got the two hunters to help call for help and get an ambulance to take him to a hospital in Madisonville. There they decided to transport him to a trauma unit in Bryan, and Dodd got his first helicopter ride in a medical chopper. The surgeons at that hospital decided that due to the closeness to the spinal cord, they would leave the bullet in Dodd, and sent him home. Today, he still has the bullet inside his hip, and a bill for the ride of over $40,000.
After the Christmas holidays, which were certainly memorial, he experienced one more trauma. On New Year’s day, he developed a severe case of vertigo, or dizziness when he stood, and this lasted for about the next month. Doctor’s were unable to determine the cause, and his treatment consisted of rest and some motion-sickness medication. After about a month, the problem disappeared, but once more Dodd wondered at his eventful “retirement.”
He was in good health, and good spirits last month, as he participated with his old AG department, as North Forest put on their 49th Annual Livestock Show & Sale. The District honored Dodd at the event with a Certificate of Appreciation for his 38 years of teaching at North Forest, presented by the acting superintendent Edna Forté, AG teacher Larry Florence, Ms. Sheppard CTE head, and Ms. Sandler assistant principal at NFHS.
New AG Advisor
The Agriculture Science program at North Forest has a new Advisor this year, continuing a tradition that stretches back to 1953, with the first AG teacher Travis Batson, and has continued through 18 other advisors.
Larry Matthew Florence is teaching for the first year. Previously he was in law enforcement, as an officer with the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the League City police department.
After his retirement from police work, he decided to enter the teaching profession. When he answered an opening at North Forest for a biology teacher, he learned that the AG department also had an opening, and since he was raised on a farm and quite familiar with that environment, he decided to take that position instead.