Loftin shares the secret to changing student lives

It’s a classic story – hometown boy goes out into the world and makes it big! Attendees at the Nov. 10 Navasota ISD Education Foundation Dinner heard that story too, but in the Navasota version, the hometown boy comes back, credits his success to his teachers and shares the secret to changing students’ lives.

Guest speaker, Dr. R. Bowen Loftin, grew up in Navasota and graduated from Navasota High School in 1967. After earning a degree from Texas A&M University (TAMU), then a master’s and a Ph.D. in Physics from Rice University, Loftin spent his entire professional life working in higher education.

In addition to his position as Chancellor at the University of Missouri, Loftin served as CEO and President of TAMU- Galveston from 20052009 before assuming that role at the main campus in College Station from 2009-2014. As president, he endeavored to have a personal and positive impact on Aggie lives.

Extraordinary teachers

Former Navasota ISD classmates and teachers in the audience particularly enjoyed Loftin’s anecdotes and fond memories of teachers and coaches who took the time to make a personal connection with their students.

Loftin said of his alma mater, “It wasn’t a big school but from my perspective, it was a great school. It was a school that made a difference for me. I had some extraordinary teachers here.”

Loftin’s Navasota education began the minute he entered Mrs. Bess Johnson’s first grade where he was taught how to behave in class and it continued through high school where he learned how to achieve his goal once he knew what he wanted to do with his life.

Loftin said, “I had exposure to people who were not famous but they were good. They were solid people who knew how to teach and they cared about me. That was what made a difference for me.”

As the first in his family to go to college, Loftin was at a loss for guidance when it came to his goal of becoming a college professor, so he turned to his math and science teacher Milton Schaeffer.

Loftin said, “He was off the clock but he wasn’t off his job. He helped me think through this process, what I had to do, what it meant to be a college professor, what I had to go through to get there. I really owe him greatly. He helped me make a key decision in my life and he had me do the right kind of research and study to figure out what it would take.”

Loftin recalled arriving at TAMU as a freshman and hearing students from some of the biggest high schools in Texas complain about the number of assignments, the amount of work and how hard it was.

Loftin said, “I was doing exactly what I was doing here. We had no college prep program. We had no special thing for people who were going to go to college but we had teachers like Grace Danford who took care of us and taught us well. When I got there I made an A in my English classes because I was doing exactly what she taught me to do. That’s the kind of school you have here.”

Taught by the very best

Fast forward to 2009, Loftin considers his job at TAMU the best job of his life but his goal was “to be a president that students could have access to.”

Given the difficulty of meeting with every student, Loftin chose social media as his means of communication and spent two hours every night on Twitter answering DMs (direct messages) from students.

He said, “I knew every single day what was making students happy and sad. That directed me as far as how I should behave as a president and get things done as a president.”

He continued, “I put students first. Why did I do that? Because I was taught here by the teachers at NISD that I was the most important thing to them. I was educated in more ways than one. I was educated in math, English and history and things like that, yes, but I was also educated in what it means to be an educator. I was taught by the very best.”