THE ACCIDENTAL EDUCATOR: Life-Defining Stories of Rites and Wrongs

THE ACCIDENTAL EDUCATOR: Life-Defining Stories of Rites and Wrongs Synopsis

On a mid-month March Friday in 2013, Eric Reno sent out a broadcast email announcing his decision to retire at the end of the calendar year after ten rewarding years as the founding president of Northeast Lakeview College, the newest of the five colleges in the Alamo Community College District, serving the greater San Antonio area. The following Monday he received a call from his doctor informing him he had tested positive for prostate cancer, a stark reminder that lives end, and not always at the most opportune time. He had never faced serious health issues and mortality was always in the distant future, and the domain of others. A year later he was on the table for eight hours of open-heart surgery. He received wonderful medical treatment and resumed an active and rewarding retirement of golfing, consulting, and grandfathering. But his life had changed, and the perspective of his future with it. What was important, and what needed his immediate attention? Writing about a life doesn’t make it any more special than others, but hopefully reveals and offers occasional thought-provoking observations. The voice of Socrates prompted Eric to examine the unexamined and isolate the junctures that give purpose to the wellspring that began as formless energy. It was time to put on the tin hat, turn on the frontal lamp, descend into the shaft of dimming memory, and begin mining for meaning – not sure where he was headed or what he would find. What he discovered by unearthing forgotten and hidden memories was a life interestingly led and entertainingly told. Eric Reno’s goal was to write about lives through a life, about times through a time. He tells life-defining stories and shares insights of people met, places lived, decisions made, and tragedies and joyous events experienced. Following high school he spent four years in the Air Force as an Intelligence Analyst in the United Kingdom. Following military service his goal was to become the first college graduate in his family. Following college he spent five years in corporate life, finally deciding it wasn’t a fit. His next goal, at age thirty, was to teach English at the college level. With no job, no money, no teaching experience, but with a supportive wife and a first child on the way, he began the pursuit of his dream. Forty years later he retired as a college president, a journey that could ever have been envisioned those many years ago.