Dad Finds New Career Helping Son
The Early Show series "My New Life" profiles people who have been through profound transformations. Meet a man who started a new career after his son was shipped out to Iraq. The unusual story actually ends where it began, in a Northern Granville middle school classroom in Oxford, N.C.
"I consider my students to be a part of my family," teacher Brian Harvey tells "The Early Show's" Dave Price. "Not being able to be there to ensure what I thought they needed to know was going to be gained was very difficult for me to leave them behind."
When Harvey told his father, Boyce, about his deployment to Iraq, as well as his concerns about his class, he got a startling response.
"I could tell by the voice, by the tone of the voice," Boyce Harvey says, "that he was not only concerned about being called, but concerned about leaving his students, and I knew they were very near and dear to him."
Brian Harvey says: "He said: 'Son, I am planning on retiring from my job and I am going to fill in for you if the principal will accept that while you are gone so I can ensure that the job gets done right and you have something positive to come back to when you get back.' And I was floored."
Brian Harvey was not the only one overwhelmed by his father's offer. Boyce's wife, Gail, was simply stunned.
"This is the man who takes forever to make a decision," she says, "And here it was, a life altering job, and just said, 'Boom, I will do it.' That is the end of it. I was very surprised."
'They called me back in about 30 minutes and said I was hired," Boyce Harvey says. And so he retired, "just like that."
Unlike his son, Boyce had no background in teaching middle school science and technology. His professional experience was three decades with the government as a resource conservationist. His specialty: farms and soil. Dan Callaghan, the school's principal, opened his doors to Boyce Harvey, but wasn't sure what to expect.
"I was a little surprised at first because I knew Boyce for a long time," Callaghan says. "I taught his two children and became principal here, and he comes as a teacher. It was real interesting. I did not know what was going to happen."
What happened was an amazing success story. Boyce Harvey did so well in his substitute teaching role that by the time his son returned 16 months later from Iraq, Boyce Harvey had launched a new career. He had gone back to school and become a full-time certified science teacher.
"My dad has changed in volumes," Brian Harvey says. "I have never seen my dad happier than he is now. I have never seen him more excited with what he does."
Boyce Harvey's advice to people his age and in his position: "You have something to offer to the students that kids out of college do not have. You have real world experience."
What keeps him motivated, he says, is "that one student that will come up to you down the road that will say, 'Mr. Harvey, thank you.' That one little incident keeps you coming back."
And both Harveys have made an impact on the students at Northern Granville Middle School.
A student was asked who the real hero is: The younger Mr. Harvey who goes off to war or the older Mr. Harvey that comes in the classroom?
"Both of them," a girl says. "One took the time to defend the country while the other came back to teach for us."
The lesson everybody can learn from his father, Brian Harvey says, is: "Don't be afraid to try something new and, not only that, family comes first."
Even though Boyce Harvey has taken over his son's classroom, don't expect a career change from the national guardsman who's now teaching classes at a high school down the road from his dad. Boyce has no plans for any new jobs in the foreseeable future.