Dr. Burgess Reminisces: Presidential Award in Science 1992!

Ten years after my first full time teaching position I was awarded a
1992 Presidential Award for
Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching
by the National Science Foundation

That is the envelope that arrived in the mail with my Presidential Award notice from the White House. The letter was awesome.

My marriage and six children are first so that makes this the 9th most memorable event in my life! It was wonderful to share this event with my wife that included a trip to Washington D.C. with a stay at push hotels, dinners at the White House, talk with national science adviser, spend time with the president, share dinner with the science teacher of his daughter then spend another two days snowed in and unable to depart. We used the time walking through the snow about the area and explored the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
You spent much of your time going up on a stage to meet dignitaries and accept letters and trinkets and get your picture taken. Everyone got to shake the hand of the president. I spent a lunch with "Bill Nye the Science Guy" and a science teacher from Sidwell Friends School that taught the president's daughter (at that time she was in middle school). The conversation I remember was shared by the science teacher who said that because the president's daughter felt ill and wanted an aspirin that had to call her parents. They asked her "Which parent do you want us to call?" she said "My Dad. My mother is very busy."

The other story I remember was the president speaking on the West Wing of the White House. President Bill Clinton shared how he always had trouble in math and algebra and never understood it fully and then after he got out of school he wondered "Why did I learn all that algebra and advance math...I never use it. Now I have a daughter taking algebra and she is always needing help. So no I know I learned it so I could help my daughter when she had to take it!"
The most fun was having my wife there with me!

In the letter below Dr. F. Neff Weber writes a recommendation I will always hold dear. He knows who I am, he knows me as a person, he know me as a student and at a teacher. No one was more qualified to write a letter evaluating me as professionally or as a person. I was touched to read it!

On March 11, 1993 this is a picture of me in a daze after a full day of meeting dignitaries and the president. The new president, Bill Clinton, did not pose for individual pictures which each award winner as the previous presidents had but he did meet with us and shared his gratitude for what the science and math teachers honored that year were doing for the county.