Cheerio!

When I started teaching at Lindbergh High School back in 1974 I was as insecure and overwhelmed as my principal Bill Coplin was outgoing and encouraging.

Bill immediately took me under his wing and regularly sat in on my classes, not as an evaluating principal but as an encouraging friend and mentor. His greatest advice was simply, “Be yourself. Kids can spot a phony in a second. As long as you are real with them, they will forgive a multitude of flaws. But they won’t accept imitations or great pretenders.”

Bill was such an encourager and great educator, but also a wonderful motivational speaker. It wasn’t long before he was in constant demand to keynote events as a character he created. He transformed into a British, uppity, well-polished but very critical nobleman named Sir Philip Richards. He could snap in and out of character at the drop of a hat. He began carrying with him a gray flannel bowler hat just in case he had the opportunity to become Sir Phillip. He was eventually in such high demand that he retired from education and became a nationally acclaimed motivational speaker for 20 years.

When Bill’s health failed 10 years ago he came to my high school classroom to tell me he could no longer be a professional speaker, that his career was over. I hugged him and told him he had no idea the impact he had on me and all the successful 25 years of teaching I had enjoyed. I also told him I had been following in his footsteps once again as a motivational speaker. He lit up and said, “That’s why I am here. How would you like a mentor and coach who won’t charge you a penny?”

I couldn’t believe Bill would actually want to help me when he was someone who was so renowned, so professional and so successful! He was in constant demand as “Sir Phillip Richards,” his speaking pseudonym. At the end of each presentation he would take off his hat, while removing his accent and reveal Bill Coplin, high school principal, from Lindbergh in St. Louis. He would also reveal his purpose: to encourage everyone to be themselves. He proved that adults are much easier to fool than children when it comes to spotting phonies. Now the real Bill, at the end of an illustrious career, wanted to mentor me once again.

After much prayer and consultation with my husband, I retired from teaching at the end of that year and became a full time motivational speaker and radio/TV host. Bill Coplin, my long time principal, encourager and friend became my full time mentor and speaking coach. He and his wife Rosie, and my husband and I, became close friends. Their daughter Suzanne had been one of my favorite students, and an accomplished theater student in spite of a serious life threatening disease that left her somewhat incapacitated. Their whole family shared in our every victory as Bill continued to be my most honest critic and coach.

When I won our regional National Speaking Association Showcase competition, Bill was the first one I called to share that I would be speaking at the National Convention in Dallas. He said, “I know I can’t travel anymore, but you can be assured both Sir Phillip and I will be there with you in the wings. Just remember to be yourself, because both of us can spot a phony, and that’s one thing you are NOT!” I thanked him as best as I could over the phone.

Bill helped me to acquire many agents from all over the United States and celebrated every speaking engagement as if it were his own. I became very close with Rosie as she had been Bill’s manager, just as my husband was becoming mine. Suzanne had become a teacher and life was seemingly good for all of us.

One rainy morning not long after a huge speaking weekend in Los Angeles, I received a call from a frantic Bill. I had never heard him cry before. “Suzanne has been rushed to the hospital and we don’t know if she’ll make it!” Within 10 minutes I was there with Rosie in time to pray as they were taking her daughter’s frail body from the room. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child, but it was the beginning of the end for Bill. Within a few months, he joined his daughter in eternity.

So many people through the years leave their mark on us. Bill was there to guide me through my first nervous day of teaching, to encourage me through directing plays and musicals, and then to mentor me in my new speaking career. Rosie is still our dear friend, and even worked for us for a couple of years. My gratitude is endless for my long term mentor and friend “Sir Phillip.”

I had an opportunity to thank him one last time in the hospital, and he was still his old playful, upbeat character as he said, “Glad to oblige you Dame Peppers. Cheerio and God Save the Queen! By the way, in case of rain, don’t forget your bumbershoot!”

Thank you, Sir Phillip! See you on the other side.

Debra Peppers, a professional speaker for 25 years, was one of only five inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame upon her retirement from Lindbergh High School. A member of the National Speakers Association, she has traveled to all 50 states and 60 countries teaching others that if she can go from being a 250-pound high school dropout, to Teacher of the Year there is hope for every child and adult. For info, visit www.pepperseed.org