Community college occupies a strange place in our culture—it’s sort of an academic Limbo, a time and experience that few people remember with any nostalgia.

I attended the southeast campus of Tulsa Community College back when it was known as Tulsa Junior College, and remember two teachers in particular: a philosophy teacher named Anthe Athes, whose name I still adore, and Mr. Scott, an American government teacher who was practically a reincarnation of Henry David Thoreau. Both teachers broadened my perspective in ways that nobody has since. Why am I telling you this? Because you need to be reminded: community college isn’t a wasteland. It actually does matter. TCC, by the way, is now the largest community college in Oklahoma, with over 30 thousand students enrolled each semester.

And that’s exactly where we find the subject of this episode of Goodbye Tulsa, Robert Lucy. He was teaching classes at Tulsa Community College when he died. He’s remembered by one of his students, Mark Madden.