Editor, Gazette-Journal:

On Monday, April 21, Marion Grey Trusch will celebrate her birthday. She epitomizes the best of Mathews High School and our state. Her roots in our hometown run deep and her positive influences extend widely—from all the students she enriched in the United States government classes at Mathews High School to her impact on the ongoing preservation of the New Point Comfort Lighthouse.

Mrs. Trusch is an integral part of Mathews. Though she left the classroom more than three decades ago, she has never stopped being a teacher. Her wisdom, insights and always stimulating political conversation inform and deepen my own thinking every day. Even though Mrs. Trusch did not teach me in the classroom, I feel compelled to quote the words of Alexander the Great, “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.”

Mrs. Trusch is a rare treasure. I have no doubt she could stand before a class and be a great teacher to today’s g...