Read time: 6 min.

As a kid, I was sensitive and felt out of place in school. None of my interests matched those of my classmates. I still remember crying in the library after I couldn’t find a book about cathedrals! That’s funny today, but I might have spent the rest of elementary school as an uncomfortable outsider if it wasn’t for David McGalliard. Mr. McGalliard was the best teacher I ever had! Sadly, I learned that he passed away last Friday evening. 

I attended elementary school in Yorktown, Indiana. About fifteen years before I started, the school board made the progressive realization that gifted students were often overlooked when teachers focused on supporting lower- and middle-level learners. To address the gap, they created the Curriculum Enrichment Program. Test scores eventually earned me a spot in the pull-out class alongside ten or twelve other kids my age.

We transitioned to Yorktown Elementary in third grade, and that’s where I met Mr. McGalliard. Right away, I found that he had an incredible ability to connect with each of us. Mr. McGalliard’s wit, wisdom, and creativity transformed our weekly classes into experiences that became more memorable with each session. Normal courses were rigid and boring, but trips to CEP promised far more than the typical experience.

Mr. McGalliard was tall with a silvery beard. He was always dressed in a sweater, and a mischievous twinkle in his eye made me feel like he and I were in on a secret joke. I’ll never forget what he let us work on. One year, we were allowed to present any topic we wanted. I chose the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm that claimed the lives of all twenty-nine crew of its crew.

We were twelve. None of my classmates had ever heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Mr. McGalliard had. He’d heard of just about everything! Presenting to him meant each project had to uphold a high standard, but Mr. McGalliard embraced my esoteric topic and encouraged me to dive in headfirst. To set the mood, I brought in a resin model of the ship and played my mom’s old Gordon Lightfoot LP in the background. His endorsement made my work all the more worthwhile.

Another time, Mr. McGalliard unveiled something more memorable: we had to plan a journey out west, Oregon Trail-style, but with a real-world twist: we had to think like pioneers and plan every detail of our expedition. We established a currency, set prices for essential goods, decided what to purchase, and then set out to manifest our destiny.

The idea was a brilliant blend of creativity, strategy, and luck. Some of us made it to California with resources to spare, but others faced disaster- a broken axle, illness, or a lack of water. Mr. McGalliard challenged us to think critically about survival, trade-offs, and resource management, all while sparking our twelve-year-old imaginations. After it was all done, we spent the day roughing it and cooking a campfire lunch at his rural property on an unforgettable field trip.

My favorite Mr. McGalliard assignment was part of a Civil War unit that brought history to life. The class was divided into two teams, each representing the fighting factions. We had to design a rudimentary trebuchet, the kind of catapult used in medieval sieges. Once we completed our rubber-band weapons, we folded and colored hundreds of index cards to represent different ranks of soldiers and officers.

We headed to the gym after each side worked out its strategy. It’d been transformed into a battlefield, and half-court was our Mason-Dixon line! Each of us had written our names on one of our cards, and scattering them with our catapults brought the realities of combat home. Mr. McGalliard didn’t just give us a history lesson; he made us feel the weight of those wartime decisions and the chaos of battle.

I highlighted a few of my favorites, but Mr. McGalliard’s ability to turn normal lessons into hands-on adventures made learning engaging and not to be forgotten. His blend of strategy and imagination turned what could have been another lame classroom activity into one of the most exciting lessons I ever had! Still, even if I wasn’t reporting on lost ships of the Great Lakes, cooking like a pioneer, or flinging catapults, a regular day in his classroom always managed to reveal something new. I watched my first LaserDisc there. I learned how to add shading to my drawings. I heard “Listen to What the Man Said” by Wings for the first time.

I also learned about the Vietnam War. After he graduated high school, Dave McGalliard was drafted into the Army and served honorably as a Sergeant (E-5) and Crew Chief in the 101st Airborne Division. After he came home, he married, earned degrees from Ball State, and began his career as an art teacher at Madison-Grant Schools in Fairmount. After two years, he moved to Yorktown. There, he spent thirty-three years inspiring students before his retirement in 2006.

I knew how much of an impact he had on me, but I never realized how widely Mr. McGalliard’s influence on education was recognized until the other day. He was honored with several awards, including “Outstanding Teacher for the Gifted” from the Indiana Association for Gifted Education, Ball State University’s “Hero Among Us” prize, and an honorary “Doctorate of Leadership in Education” from Indiana University. He also received the John E. Worthen Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education from the Indiana Academy of Science, Mathematics, and Humanities.

Outside of the classroom, Mr. McGalliard was deeply committed to his community. He served twice as president of the Exchange Club of Muncie and was a life member of both the 101st Airborne Association and the American Legion. His impact extended far beyond his teaching, but I’ll forever be one of his many students. Even though I left Yorktown too early to follow him to the middle school, I’m thankful to have a Mr. McGalliard story or two of my own. I’m a better person for it.

To those who knew him, Dave McGalliard was more than a teacher: he was a mentor, a friend, and a guiding light. His ability to inspire his kids, his dedication to creativity, and his steadfast commitment to service made him a pillar of the community and my childhood. Many of my favorite memories from that time are tied to Mr. McGalliard’s humor, wisdom, and kindness, and I’ll never forget him. His classes opened up new worlds for me!

Rest in peace, Mr. McGalliard. You were one in a billion.