John Grigg and his wife, Barbara, moved to Homewood at Crumland Farms eight years ago. One of the best parts of living there, he said, is that he’s much closer to their kids — all 10,000 or so of them. And that’s not including his five children, 16 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. John, a former teacher for Montgomery County Public Schools, lovingly calls all his former students his “kids.”

“I thoroughly enjoy being here at Homewood,” he said. “We feel so close to all our students.”

The retirement community’s close proximity to Damascus High School, where he taught science classes for almost 20 years, has offered many chance encounters with his kids. One visit to the dentist’s office a few years back led to John helping a former student’s son get past a difficult word in a story book and a visit from a flute choir at Homewood reconnected John with a former student who is now a teacher at Catoctin High School.

He recalled numerous instances during his 35 years of teaching when he and his students took more away than just a textbook lesson, including one situation soon after his split with his first wife of 27 years.

“In that period of time, it was like being a teenager just starting out with your dating,” he said. “I would date women in town, and my students would come to me the next day — the girls especially — and they would say ‘you can do better than that,’ and they would keep me on track. This was my second marriage — That’s why they were so protective of me.”

That genuine interest and welcoming personality is what stuck in the minds of his students. Not only does he run into them during high school reunions, doctors’ appointments and special events at Homewood, but they often drop by for a visit.

“I just had a student (come by) today. Keith was a student of mine. He’s from Georgia and was just coming through and had lunch with us,” he said. Keith and the group reminisced about the time John was chaperoning a school dance during the time he and Barbara were courting. “He says, ‘I remember you two dancing up a storm, trying to keep up with us students. … You taught us more than what was just in the books. You taught us about life.’”

Although he has left the school system, retiring on July 1, 1984, John has also left his mark at each of the different schools where he taught. When he was a teacher at Julius West Middle School, his class planted pine trees, which now tower higher than the school, he said. When he was at Richard Montgomery High School, he called up NASA and “they brought us a rocket” for the Home of the Rockets. “So that was the famous rocket, and the kids were always excited about that. We had some rich experiences.”

Because of those rich experiences and the memories that came with them, retiring wasn’t easy for John. “It was so difficult to give up the students,” he said. “They’ve been just such an important part of my life. It was hard for me to leave that behind.”Staff photo by Sam Yu

John and Barbara Grigg are shown in their apartment at Homewood at Crumland Farms.