Karl Gscheidle’s Physics class constructs catapults in order to test velocity and the distance they cover. Trials and test runs take place monday in the main hallway of Coppell High School. Photo by Chelsea Banks.

By Emma Cummins

Editorial Page Editor

He drives a Corvette, teaches physics, was a navigator for the Air Force and even tried owning his own business. All these characteristics are rarely connected, which is why Karl Gscheidle brings so much to the table at his first year at Coppell High School, teaching conceptual physics.

After graduating from the University of Illinois with a major in civil engineering, Gscheidle was recruited to the Air Force through the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program.

“Around your age [16] I started having a dream to fly,” Gscheidle said. “Honestly, it was a financial dream. Commercial airline pilots do pretty well.”

This kind of blunt honesty would prove to be useful to Gscheidle, since his job as a navigator required concentration and communication. Gscheidle’s duties while on the plane were not to fly, but to direct the pilot, manage the weapons system, navigation system and defensive systems.

“We jokingly called the pilots the monkeys,” Gscheidle said. “We gave them the next piece of the banana and told them where to go.”

Gscheidle spent nine years at the Air Force but was never in direct combat.

“I never dropped a bomb in anger,” Gscheidle said while chuckling. “That was the old joke.”

However, he does have “war” stories to tell, to some extent. Gscheidle was part of operation Southern Watch, which was between Gulf War One and the Iraq War. Stationed in Kuwait, when Saddam Hussein was still in charge of Iraq, Gscheidle played a role in distributing airspace to coalition fighters in the Kuwaiti airspace. Gscheidle was only 27.

After his time in the Air Force, Gscheidle left after being medically disqualified to fly. However, this would not stop Gscheidle from working a variety of jobs, from doing commercial real estate, to owning his own business.

But after the economic downturn in 2008, Gscheidle decided to try his skills at teaching.

“It was something he had talked about for a long time and other careers that he was going down the doors just kind of shut on those and opened up teaching,” Gscheidle’s wife, Anna Gscheidle said. “Since I had been a teacher, I encouraged him to consider it and he did.”

Gscheidle had also acquired a love for teaching in his Air Force days.

“When I gained experience in the [B-1 bomber], when I was one of the experienced people on the plane, I realized that I like teaching,” Gscheidle said.

Mrs. Gscheidle believes that her husband has the necessary requirements to be a good teacher.

“What he teaches fits well with his personality,” Mrs. Gscheidle said. “He likes to understand the why’s behind problems and he likes to explain all of those things to other people.”

Gscheidle’s students also find him to be perfectly suited to teach in the classroom. CHS junior Hannah Meehan finds that his real life experience manifests itself in the classroom.

“Whenever he shows us video of how physics applies to the real world, it really engages the class,” Meehan said.

Gscheidle’s patriotism is also evident in his teaching style.

“He always talks about how patriotic he is,” Meehan said. “He thinks that personally, he would put his kids in AP (Advanced Placement) rather than IB (International Baccalaureate), because he wants his kids to grow up in the American system.”

Gscheidle’s laid back, goofy and wise personality may not seem compatible, however his teaching endeavors and past careers seem to have set the path for such opposing characteristics to make sense together.

“I thought ‘hey this [teaching] would be a good retirement career when I made my millions,’ although I gave up on that dream shortly thereafter,” Gscheidle said with a good natured laugh. “It just kind of fell into place and I just thought ‘Hey, let’s do this now.'”