John Choe’s wanted to let two Upper Darby teachers know how much they had done for him, writes Maria Panaritis for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Panaritis had written a column about a lunch reunion of retired Beverly Hills Middle School teachers, including John’s gifted students teacher, Bill Elder.

Now John wanted to pass along a message of appreciation.

John Choe was the son of South Korean immigrants who operated a West Chester Pike deli and lived above the store.

“Our parents were lower-middle class, hardworking immigrants,” Choe wrote his teacher.  “Your classes challenged me and the spirit of your gifted classes shows up in how I teach my kids … ”

Choe went on to MIT to study engineering, earning an MBA. He now works as a stock investor in Boston.

John Choe’s also been launching a lot of model rockets lately with his kids, because of the pandemic. That got him thinking about the rockets he used to launch in Bev Rohr’s Highland Park Elementary School gifted program.

Both former teachers remembered John fondly.

“He was an inquisitive kid,” Rohr said. “Interested in lots of different things. And he was cute.”

Read more about John Choe’s message of teacher appreciation here.

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