Bob P.'s American Life

A couple of weeks ago, Northern Virginia lost a man of great decency and dignity in George Towery. I knew George since 2011, when we hired him to serve as a facilitator in our after-school program of civic engagement for low-income, immigrant youth at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA. George was the anchor of that program as he later came to be at our Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA. His relationships with our teenage participants, everyone of whom he knew by name, was based on his profound respect for the individual and his high regard for basic human dignity. In return, the youth respected and admired him, treating him as a surrogate grandfather. He was the classic example of intergenerational bonding at its best. There was an obvious reason for this. George was a lifelong educator. Before he retired from Fairfax County Public Schools in 2010, George served as the principal at Cameron Elementary School for 30 years and before that he was the principal of Lorton El