His students are now professors, engineers and brain surgeons.
They have impressive degrees of their own, hold chairs in academia, are experts in their fields.
This is Michael Farmer's legacy.
A retired teacher who had taught physics at Riverside High School, Greenville Technical College and the Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities, Farmer died Tuesday in a car wreck not far from his home. He was 73.
News of his death spread quickly as former students took to Facebook to remember a mentor who pushed them and inspired them, who wore tie-dye lab coats and neckties depicting famous pieces of art and who was so close to becoming the first teacher in space.
"He was a force to be reckoned with and drove me to strive for, and perhaps beyond, my potential," said Scott Owens, a 1980 Riverside High grad with an electrical engineering degree from Clemson. "I thank him, blame him and credit him."
Farmer was at Riverside in 1985 when he applied for NASA's Teacher in Space program, hoping to become the first teacher in space on the 1986 Challenger mission.
He was selected as an alternate to Christa McAuliffe, one of seven crew members killed when the space shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after take off.
"It was one of the saddest days of my life," Farmer later told The Greenville News.
Still, his fascination with space travel never diminished.
"Most science fails," he said in a 2003 News story that ran the day after the Columbia space shuttle explosion. "If you have a setback, you can't stop."
Farmer applied for the space program again that year while he was the chair of the science department at the Governor's School for the Arts.
Julie Allen, dean and vice president of arts and academics, said Farmer was recruited by the school's founder, Virginia Uldrick, because of his proven teaching abilities.
He was popular with students because he was able to take a subject like physics — all mechanics and gears and formulas — and make it practical, Allen said.
Tim Northcutt, another Riverside grad who now co-owns a local chemical manufacturing company, said Farmer often made students answer their own questions.
He was known for his lab experiments, including one Northcutt can still recall in exact detail that involved a ball bearing, a ramp and a cup on the floor.
"You had to calculate where that ball would land in that cup without knocking it over. No trial and error. It was an A or an F, and you just had to do it," Northcutt said.
Farmer would go on to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. He was a Greenville County Teacher of the Year and won awards from Discover Magazine and the National Science Teachers Association.
Colleagues said the day before his death Farmer was filling in as a substitute teacher at the Governor's School, though he had officially retired in 2012.
He was working on a college-level textbook that integrated the arts and physics. He loved to garden and collected art.
"He never took himself too seriously and encouraged other people not to do the same," Allen said. "He could talk with the custodial staff just as well as he could talk with the president of the school."
By Wednesday afternoon, a website full of photos and favorite quotes had been set up in memory of Farmer at http://mikefarmerofriverside.blogspot.com.
"May the mysteries of space be revealed to you now," one former student wrote. "I'll always see you in the stars."
Farmer is survived by his wife, Libby Higgins, also a teacher at the Governor's School, and a daughter, Kenley Farmer.
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