Ever have a truly great professor?

I had many solid profs in college, but the best was undoubtedly this hard-nosed poetry teacher. I don't know why I took that class, but I ended up getting the Drill Sergeant of the Iambic Pentameter Airborne First Division. She had some strict rules; any assignments had to be formatted to her specifications and three-hole punched. She'd put a big F on anything that used the passive voice and make examples out of people, etc.
But somewhere between the horrifying first week when we all saw Ds in our futures, and the second half of the course, we all discovered we were becoming better poets. We weren't writing journal/melodrama, or about personal woe-is-me experiences we. We adhered to her rules -- poetry's various rules -- and became better at describing scenes and illustrating with words. We just became better writers.

 

Frank Henderson. RIP. Ohio University. Great professor. Even greater human being.

 

Took sports reporting at my university. The professor was a former SE of a top 5 national paper. He was one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met. He brought in David Aldridge to speak to the class, as well as Ernie Accorsi. He took us to the set of an ESPN TV show and we saw how everything worked. It was very cool. He gave me a B in the class, but seeing how he interacted with people like Aldridge and Accorsi, and how much they respected him, was a very cool experience.

Later he hosted my alma mater's first-ever sports journalism workshop, featuring Kevin Blackistone, some AP writers and a few other people. Pretty sure he organized the entire thing himself by calling in favors. Another awesome experience.