Hollis Stabler (Omaha)

When Hollis Stabler, 58, returned to teaching eleven years ago, it was a matter of simple economics. After 15 years with a major aircraft producer here, he was laid off; and, his three kids at home were "still eating as if there were no tomorrow." But now, after seeing the effect proper guidance can have on junior high students, he gets paid to do what he wants to do: teach art. So it's no longer "simple economics." For him, it's a way to stay young because "being around kids all day makes you feel that way." In class, there's a sense of going back in time to when he was their age. He had that same "going-back-in-time" feeling this spring when he visited Orleans, France. There, some thirty-three years ago, he was a member of the 4th Ranger Battalion as it rolled through France. Before that, in North Africa and Italy, he was in Patton's Second Armoured Division, a tank commander in a tank commander's division. "It was quite an experience," is all he says (he's one of the few who survived Anzio).