My story took place a year ago next week. José was trying to clean his room and put things back in order before summer vacation. The school year would end in three days. At the same time, he was supervising students and working against a deadline to complete a large sculpture for a garden area, which Clemente students were to work on that summer. The temperature was close to 90 degrees and there was no air conditioning. It was very hot in school.

At the same time, José was jaundiced and trying to work through the bureaucracy of our new health insurance to find a new primary care physician so he could take tests to determine the cause of this condition. In the midst of all this, I asked him to ride with me to find an electrical store where we could buy a part for a new kiln. Three kilns had been delivered to the Art Department, but they weren't hooked up yet. We needed to buy a part for the engineer to install one of them.

Naturally, José stopped everything and left with me on our hour and a half search for the part, leaving all his incomplete tasks for later—an example of his truly selfless nature. Within a few days he was undergoing twelve hours of surgery.

The next story was told to me by Bobbi Keys, Business Department Chairperson at Clemente. She said a student, Gabriel Maldonado, told her, "You teachers don't know what a good teacher is until you see Mr. Aguilar." Last year, he told Ms. Keys, after looking at Gabriel's grades, José drew a triangle on a piece of paper and pointed to the top. He told Gabriel that the top was Clemente and asked Gabriel, "Where are you and where are you going?" Another example of José's personal approach to teaching is when he played the coach, allowing students to examine situations and think through decisions.

This method extended to his colleagues as well. José was always willing to stop what he was doing to help you do something. He wouldn't do it for you, but he'd show you how—because if he did it for you, you wouldn't learn.

José had an unusual way of thinking and examining in a most creative way that made him a special teacher and friend.

• Running to José with a computer problem(s)
• Our hellos and good-byes at the beginning and end of most school days
• Cleaning out his storage room when he didn't want it cleaned
• Cleaning off his desk when he didn't want it cleaned
• Cleaning out the art office storage room, only to find everything I threw out in José's storage room
• Finding an explicit love letter left by one of his students on the hard drive of a computer in my classroom and sharing it with him—and then erasing it because was X-rated
• Writing cross-curricular lesson plans with José—he had all the creative ideas; I just corrected his spelling
• Looking at José's latest test or computer drawing, he was always doing them over with a new approach—he had too many creative ideas to repeat a lesson or test
• Seeing José in the morning, after he was up with Kathleen half the night helping her with a deadline—he'd never taken a sick day
• José describing his fall after he got new roller blades for his birthday and forgot where the brake was
• José inquiring about my weekend or family or listening to me describe a family event—always with interest
• Telling José the latest school gossip—he might have heard it already, but he'd never tell
• Listening to José describe his Japan trip—telling me it was his and Kathleen's honeymoon they never took
• Selling M&Ms to raise money for art supplies and seeing José eating them himself—he'd never bring or eat lunch; the year after we quit selling candy, José lost 10 lbs. by just not eating chocolate
• Watching José fold paper into origami shapes during faculty meetings—that is, if he didn't have a fine point black pen to sketch with
• Discussing the latest episode of a TV program: L.A. Law, Northern Exposure, Emergency.