I could never pick just one! So many of them were special to me, just by being themselves.

I would have to go with Janet Muzos. I had her for a year of statistics in college. She never gave me shit for not understanding. She was always comforting and was there to help when I needed it.

Mrs. Ogario was my high school art teacher. In 4 years of high school art we got to try egg tempera, oils, acrylics, water color, gauche, silk screen, matte cutting, etching, animation as well as conventional drawing and abstraction exercises. I always hated school but I got As in art, and that was because it was always interesting and fun. If I ran a school, it's exactly how I would teach everything.

Mrs Risely. She was my teacher in infant school (kindergarten) when I was six years old. She was a substitute teacher and we only had her for a very short time, but I loved her and have never forgotten her. She was an older, white-haired lady (probably brought out of retirement to fill in until we got a permanent teacher - we had Mrs Risely in the mornings and another even older lady in the afternoons).

Mrs Risely was a lovely warm, grandmotherly person who encouraged me with my reading and said I was 'the class bookworm'. I remember she wore a brooch that was in the shape of a bow, made out of silver and, given this was the 1960s and Mrs Risely was probably in her late 60s, I'm guessing it dated from the 1920s or 30s. It was almost exactly like this.

She was important to me because she made me feel safe, something I rarely felt at home.

Jane Santos my college psychology professor. She was intelligent, interesting and cared very much about her students.

Mrs. Munson, high school English. Whatever I know about grammar and sentence construction, I probably learned from her. She wasn't warm, she was a tough grader, but at the last reunion, most of us remembered her with gratitude and a surprising amount of fondness.

Too many to list; and I kinda figure a teacher to be more than just the folk in the public schools.

Mother Nature has taught me to be all from soft and caring to cold and unforgiving.