This is in some ways a distillation of the "Teachers" thread, but I hope it strikes the right note for all that.

Having read Mike Dixon's interview (thanks Rowland), I note that Mike and Neil both mention Tref Farrow as a teacher whom they regard as inspirational and whom they clearly regarded themselves as lucky to have been taught by.

By the same token, several here have mentioned Clive Burrows, one person Rock Evans, and Simon, Mumble/Primo Milton as teachers who inspired them during their time at DHS.

Were there any teachers who taught or had contact with you in other contexts whom you would regard as inspirational, and/or who had a significant influence on you and your later career after DHS?

Reg "Fritz" Ferraro
I remember always having a desire to play with numbers and to 'work things through' especially in my head. So much so that, when in hospital shortly before taking The Scholarship, I bugged some poor man, a teacher, in the next bed for problems to solve. I hope he recovered.

I digress. It was Fritz that made me realise that numbers, equations, theorums and the like were the way I wanted my future learning at DHS to progress. He was an absolutely gifted teacher in the lower Forms; I am not aware whether he taught sixth form as he had retired by my time there. As to his influence on my life after DHS, I have said elsewhere that for many reasons I chose not to pursue an academic life, I can honestly say that his ability to teach a thoughtful approach to commonsense mathematical problems has stood me in great stead throughout life where I have used the same principles when confronted with problems in business and, I add with some force, situations encountered in general day to day life. Perhaps the answer is that he just taught humanitarian principles through his Maths Classes. A very rare talent.

I became a teacher, having been inspired by many of those who taught me between 1964 and 1971.
Those who impressed most, of course, were the ones who made least noise about it: the ones who did not need to resort to sarcasm, intimidation or physical violence, but who conveyed their scholarship in a calm environment of mutual respect.
At the top of the tree must be Bunny Warren, who managed to make a reasonable mathematician out of this linguist.
Then D E Smith and Elmer Whitfeld who both got on with the job with deceptive ease and who made us pupils really sense our progress.
Alas, I don't feel that I have quite reached their standard!

Some good replies so far, for which thanks. I wasn't lucky enough to have a teacher whose inspiration sustained me throughout my career at DHS (I'd probably have thought better of the school, or at least my time there, if I had) but my time there was touched, if you will, by several teachers who in one way or another showed themselves to be truly worthy of their place at the school.

Jack Stone was my form master in the 4th form; though we didn't always see eye to eye in matters like the wearing of personal necklaces in games or the privacy of school reports, his personal decency was impeccable and he was always patient with my questions about the school and what I should expect of my time there. He died at the same age as my dad, 51, which was almost not a coincidence as he was the most fatherly of teachers (in the best sense).

Clive Burrows has been mentioned by everyone who was taught by him as a truly great teacher, and I'm not going to break ranks here; his being one was beyond any reasonable dispute, he was a master in the true sense of the word. It's impossible in my view to imagine a woman teacher doing the job in the same bucolic and knockabout style as he did (he issued us all with nicknames, for instance, and used them freely).

Recalling his lessons is like remembering George Best playing for Man U; so many irresistible memories of the many interactions between us, and his comments about the books we had to study or about our written work, that you could almost write a book about him alone. Maybe one day someone will; he deserves it.

Even if I had nothing else to thank DHS for, being in his class (for sadly only a year) is something I'm very glad I experienced.

Bunny Warren's also been mentioned, amd I'm truly nostalgic about my time in his class. He worked hard to help those who found the subject difficult, but also, more than anyone else during my time there, he went out of his way to emphasise the true place of his subject in the scheme of things and to impress upon us the fact that lack of success in Maths wasn't the end of the world (his brother had no "O" levels for instance but managed a factory and apparently could have bought him out several times over).

I'll always remember his counsel when one of the "O" level papers we did (the second of three, IIRC) turned out to be harder than expected; "Forget about it and go out and have a game of football when you get home." Wisdom indeed.

The final one I'd choose may surprise some people, since I only did Greek for a year; Alan Wroath. If any teacher I had at DHS exemplified what it was to be a gentleman, it was him; he was impeccably polite without ever being unctuous. He never issued any punishments or even raised his voice as far as I can recall but kept a near perfect discipline throughout.

Although our lesson with him was the last one of the week on Friday afternoon (following Rock Evans's Geography), there was never a bad one. A calm descended upon us at the start of every lesson with him which lasted right through to the end and made application to his subject not only possible but easy. Would that all my lessons there had been like that.

In the interests of fairness I think I should also mention Robert "Primo" Milton who taught me Physics for most of my time at DHS, even though as I've said elsewhere I didn't like the guy.

No one could say he didn't have a mind of his own and his ideas were usually interesting even if one didn't agree with them. Later on in my school career he took us for a weekly double period of "Current Affairs" along with Kevin Dickens, and tried to school us in thinking things through for ourselves as well.