FRED CULPEPPER, an Old Dominion University professor emeritus, taught technology
education to teachers for 30 years. When the governor gave him the opportunity for early
retirement, he took it.
Now he's teaching teachers again - this time in Chesapeake Public Schools.
``Here is someone who's an international expert, who's produced numerous electronics
textbooks, whose time is extremely valuable given his knowledge base in the area of
technology education, and he's doing it all free,'' said Bob Head, program administrator
for Vocational and Technology Education for Chesapeake Schools.
``It's really so positive for someone with that amount of experience to be doing so
much for our community, and I think that is the most valuable aspect of his donation.
We're just very fortunate,'' Head said.
When Head was a student, he was one of the first students in Culpepper's department at
ODU, and the two had stayed in contact over the years. So when Head asked Culpepper for
help, he was happy to volunteer.
``The first thing Bob asked me was would I work with his electronics teachers,''
Culpepper said, ``and that was my specialty, so I said, `Sure!' ''
That help has been invaluable, Head said.
``He works with us two days a week and more if we need him, and he goes in and works
with teachers and helps them with computer problems that they may have,'' said Head.
``We use some Apples and some IBM computers. If we have any problems with the Apples,
I'll send Fred a message and he'll go by and fix it. He has become our `Apple guru,' and
we haven't had to spend any money getting them repaired.''
But, according to Head, that's not Culpepper's primary contribution. He also works with
technology education teachers in Chesapeake.
``Literally, I'm serving as a consultant, and I hate to glorify it with that kind of a
name because what I try to do is be around to be helpful,'' said Culpepper.
``Occasionally I get to work with the students if they have a project that they're
working on. For example, I've got a young fellow at Great Bridge High School who has
designed and made by computer-driven lathe a complete chess set. He wants to take it to
the national convention and explain what he's done by means of a computer slide show, so
I'm helping his teacher, Neil Hoffman, to help the kid build the slide show.''
Culpepper's most recent project is networking some of the labs in the computer schools
so that students can communicate with each other using the computers.
He's also saving the school system money by teaching students and teachers how to
modify old computers to meet new needs.
``See, the schools have got all these computers they bought 10 years ago. These are old
Apple II's, and you know what happens to old computers; they need to be replaced,'' said
Culpepper. ``The computer companies sold a tremendous amount of Apples to schools awhile
back, but those older machines just won't run the newer programs, and the schools don't
want to throw them away.
``What we are trying to do is get them transferred down to the technology departments
so the students can learn problem-solving with the equipment, so they can tinker with
them, modify them and use them for their projects,'' he said.
``The schools think it's great. Otherwise these old computers are sitting in closets
because they're not being used today, but are too good to throw away.''
Head said one of the things that makes Culpepper so effective is his high energy level.
``He really enjoys working with the students and the teachers, giving them some advice
on their technology student association projects,'' he said. ``Fred is an individual who
has a great deal of benefits for us. Even though he's retired, he is still in touch with
what's going on in the schools and in his field.''
``Chesapeake is our future,'' said Culpepper. ``Virginia Beach is landlocked, and
Chesapeake and Suffolk are the growth areas. We are going to be seeing some wonderful
things happening in the near future in technology education, and Chesapeake is on the
cutting edge of that. And it's just fascinating.
``I have only one regret in my life: I got into education about 20 years too soon. Here
I am at the retired end of the spectrum, and I see all these wonderful things that are
beginning to happen and I'm as excited about what's coming up and going on in education as
when I first started teaching, except for one thing - I'm not down in the trenches
anymore,'' said Culpepper.
``It's one of the advantages of being retired.''
