I graduated from a Catholic school in Plaquemine, Louisiana, in 1956, in a much different time than today. World War II had ended and our economy was booming, but most people were much poorer than we are today. Only about 10 percent of high school graduates started college. They were mostly from wealthy families. Graduates from blue collar workers’ families like mine expected to get a job, get married, raise a family and spend the rest of their lives in their hometown.

Fortunately, Mr. Tony Fama, my chemistry teacher, saw a potential in me that I never thought I had. After graduating, I worked in a machine shop with my father when he convinced my family that I should go to college. After graduating in 1961 with a chemical engineering degree, I worked on solid fuel for missiles and rockets until 1993 at the Naval Facility in Indian Head, Maryland.

I met and married my wife, Joyce, in 1967. Religion wasn’t a part of my life since my late teens, but I went to church, mostly to make my wife happy. I found Jesus there and became a serious Christian (as opposed to a CINO). We have two children and four grandchildren and traveled a lot seeing the U.S. We are spending our senior years in Gloucester, Virginia where I intend to work for God on pro-life and whatever other ministries He gives me.

Thankfully, because of my science teacher and my wife, I’ve had a much more meaningful life than I could ever have imagined.

Robert Boudreaux

Gloucester, Va.