David Souza: friend to many, distinguished physicist, and the musically inclined teacher of the art and language hall of our West Anchorage High school. Not much is known of this renowned educator, and role model to some of our younger teachers, but with what little information is noted, there are hints of an enigma in this animate lecturer.

Teachers still accept his liveliness in teaching and to some, like our affective skills teacher, Lindsey Honemann; he has inspired their teaching method. “Many people don’t really see this, but I think he can be a role model to the younger ones, like for the younger teachers, because he’s a really good teacher, he knows that he does his best to help the students be successful, but he also taught me that it’s okay to have a sense of humor and to be a dork in your classroom, and just be normal because the kids need to see you as human,” Honemann says.

Lindsey Honemann met Souza August of 2011. “The first time I met him, he was really really crabby because, well I came in to figure out where my classroom was right before school started, and Souza was super crabby because they rearranged his entire room.” But she hung out with Souza during their conference hour and they became friends.

William Kimball has been alive for 50 years. “Half a century,” he said. Mr. Kimball has worked at West for almost 18 years, and has known Souza for a long time. To Kimball, Souza was at first humble, quiet, and kind of reserved, but now he has became more open and noticeable. Mr. Kimball characterizes Mr. Souza as a great guitar player, and that the mere presence of Souza has improved his guitar playing skills. To Mr. Kimball, Souza is, “The best thing since sliced bread.”

John Novotny, 17, A student of Souza’s for two years, and yet another piece to fact, who is, Mr. Souza? He describes the mystery man as “Fun, creative, and energetic.”  When John first met him in his Algebra II class, Souza was the same lively man he is today instructing John’s physics class.  “It’s in the morning so I feel like when Souza comes in he’s just like on some sort of drug, he’s always way too energetic in the morning,” he claims.

Now, who is Souza? David Souza, 51, was born in Newport, Rhode Island on October 3rd, 1963. He also has a younger brother, two years junior to him. Throughout his life he has lived in four different places: Massachusetts, England, Kansas, and Alaska. “Have I changed much? I think so..” He started his job at West as a tech coordinator. When the halls were absent of people, and safe to do so, he would rollerblade throughout the halls. Unfortunately he doesn’t proceed to do so anymore. “West has been great, I love it here, I absolutely love my colleagues, I love my students,.”

Aside from teaching, Souza likes to fly his Cessna-150, hunt, fish, rock out on his guitar, play video games on his PC, read, and play hockey. He has been coaching JV Hockey for four years and has played his guitar since his youth, 7th grade. His favorite books include the Lord of The Rings Series, and Fahrenheit 451. Possibly Souza’s most favorite person is his granddaughter,  “I love my granddaughter, she’s the most awesome person in the world, she was born just over a year ago, and I miss her.” Lastly, from the teacher of room 22, Souza’s message to the masses, “Be nice to people.”