Influencer Appreciation Week: Larry Crosswell

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My friend Jimmy Bosse declared this week Influencer Appreciation Week.

So I thought I would jump in and and start off with Larry Crosswell.

Larry is a friend, and a mentor. He is a high school math teacher, and is probably responsible for my entire career and interest in software in general. At the time of moving to South Carolina, he was teaching math at my high school. I never actually had him as a teacher. He taught “smart people” math, which of course I had no business in his class. However, he was responsible for the school’s website. I reached out and politely told him I thought the website was “crap” and wanted to help.

Larry gave me tools, convinced the school to invest a little more money in the website, and encouraged me to keep interest in it. I decided to do some of the school’s website in ASP.NET back when Visual Studio 2002 launched. Throughout my high school years we worked together on the site. Mistakes were made, but it was a far more important experience for me. I don’t think I would have had interest, job, or ambition that I have now without Larry’s encouragement and patience.

Larry is still a math teacher, a job I greatly admire. We still keep in good contact over 10 years later.

Thanks Larry, for showing me that software development is what I was meant to do.