Robert Mecea for New York Daily
Richard Fisher in a woodworking shop at Brooklyn Tech High School. (New York Daily News Photo/Robert Mecea)
Richard Fisher was a terrible student in high school who got serious about academics after his brush with death during military service in the Iraqi War.
This years valedictorian at downtown Brooklyns City Tech, who joined the Navy because he di dnt see any point in going to college, was wounded in a mortar attack at a U.S. military base in Ramadi, Iraq in February 2006. He was awarded a Purple Heart because of his injuries.
Theres no reason I should have been able to walk away, said Fisher, 25, who lives in Astoria.
A lethal 120-mm shell blew a hole through the concrete roof of the building he was in, raining rubble on him. If things had gone a little differently, hed have been dead. Instead, he was cut and bruised but escaped lasting harm.
Im not a religious person; I hadnt been to church since third grade, said Fisher, but it made me think;
After that...I can handle anything in my life.
Fisher, who grew up in an Albany suburb, was a C-average student in high school who flunked chemistry and took remedial math.
If I didnt like a teacher, I shut down, he recalled. I thought, What am I going to go to college for? The only thing I like is shop.
It was the shop teacher who sparked Fishers interest in joining the Navy: The teacher was a former Seabee who invited a Navy recruiter to speak to the class.
Six years later, hes the pride of New York City College of Technologys graduating class, with a grade point average of 3.968 and a bachelors degree in technology teacher education coming his way.
He plans to make a career of teaching middle- and high-school students construction, woodworking and introductory tech, the subject matter he loved even as a rebellious teen.
Fisher, who is currently student teaching a 12th-grade building and construction class at Brooklyn Tech, has earned
praise from City Tech professors for his academic turnaround.
You can see his seriousness of purpose, said Professor Tom Wilkin. His presence in class elevates the discussion.
Online community college courses Fisher took during active military duty, which also included stints in Kuwait and Guam, have made it po ssible for him to finish City Tech in three years.
Hes now in the Naval Reserves; his rank is First Class Petty Officer. As is required of reservists, hes got a two-week stretch of active duty coming up and it starts Sunday in Gulfport, Miss., right while hes finishing school.
When he returns to City Tech, each of his classes will meet just one more time before final exams.
Its cutting it a little close, said Fisher, who has lined up people to share their notes from classes he will miss.
Meanwhile, hes trying to tamp down a touch of stage fright about the commencement speech hell be making to thousands of fellow City Tech grads and their families at Javits Center on June 4.
University officials have started prepping him for the big day.
They sent me pictures of a graduation crowd, he said. There are chairs as far as the eye can see.
lcroghan@nydailynews.com
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