TOWAMENCIN: Don’t let his proclivity towards cups of coffee, strolls through the city, irony, foreign films, and obscure, indie bands fool you, North Penn High School English teacher Mr. T.J. Gillespie may be “cool,” but claims he lacks the “hip” necessary to be categorized as “hipster.”

During his freshman year at Loyola University, Gillespie majored in Journalism, but found the style of writing to inhibit his creative yearnings. Searching for the storytelling aspect of Journalism, he figured that perhaps a major in writing would be better suited to his interests. From his writing courses, Gillespie had an epiphany: “I like to read, and that’s sort of what I’m best at doing.” From that point forward, Gillespie focused on English Literature and British Romantic poetry, uncertain of where exactly his education would lead.

“Eventually you graduate. I had fantasies of travelling and writing. I wanted to fight in the Spanish Civil War and drink wine and paint, and you realize, well, they don’t pay you to do those things, so now what? … I was thinking about grad school; I was thinking about law school; I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up. And I wanted to travel, that’s one of the things I wanted to do. So I was thinking about going to Europe. This was the late 90s and Eastern Europe had just opened up so everybody was going to Prague,” said Gillespie.

Although he grew up in Montgomery County and attended LaSalle College High School, Gillespie has always envisioned himself as a traveler.  Instead of Prague, Gillespie found himself in Bangkok, Thailand, teaching at an English-speaking University, geared towards preparing its students for careers in international business. The University drew students from South and Southeast Asia, and also hosted a number of Thai pop singers and movie stars.

“They would’ve been famous for other people. People were all excited that they were in my class. I mean its Thai pop, so they had crazy haircuts… They’d show up with their chauffeurs and things like that,” said Gillespie of his celebrity students.

Thai pop singers are not the extent of Gillespie’s encounters with stardom. One of his first jobs involved playing Jason, the Red Ranger at the height of the Power Rangers television series, while working in a restaurant at the Jersey Shore. Gillespie recalled signing autographs with the tagline: “Keep on kickin’.” Although he preferred to keep his another of his former personas “off the record,” he revealed this other character to be “much hotter and purple.” We’ll leave the rest up to your imagination, but I’d just like to remind you, “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family.”

Gillespie’s celebrity status does not end there. In 2008, he appeared on Jeopardy, for an experience he referred to as “humbling, but exciting.” To this day, Gillespie claims fellow English teacher Mrs. Sue Cassel teases him regularly about his failure to correctly identify George Bernard Shaw as the playwright to donate a sum of his financial earnings to the founding of a new phonetic alphabet following his death in 1950.

Admitting that he “choked,” Gillespie has since watched the episode only once since its airing, and took down one of the posters of George Bernard Shaw from his classroom. His fifteen minutes of fame were a bittersweet moment for all fans of Mr. Gillespie.

Since recovering from his defeat, Gillespie has reversed roles, sticking to his place behind the camera while making home videos of his four-year-old daughter, Lucy, and recently trying his hand at writing screenplays. Although his writing “comes and goes” and he finds that being a part of a writing group encourages him to meet deadlines, Gillespie continues to put pen to paper from time to time. However, outside of his teaching career, Lucy seems to keep him busy.

“She’s four years old going on fifteen. She’s got a pretty wacky sense of humor. She like ballet, she’s a very girly girl. She takes ballet classes and she likes dresses. Ever since she was six months old she would line up her shoes. She likes to change outfits like 5 times a day. She got a little pink baseball glove, so we were practicing grounders and watching the Phillies. She loves to paint and draw. Her favorite story was Wizard of Oz, because that what I read to her as a bedtime story,” says Gillespie of his daughter.

Recalling his own days of youth, Gillespie has said that he used to find himself in trouble a lot in class. In the teacher’s shoes now and at North Penn High School since 2001, Gillespie has a greater appreciation for keeping the classroom a place in which students don’t want to get in trouble.

“I think when I was younger, I was bored in class… The way I teach class is, I have to be here too, so I try to make it interesting. I try to find the things that are still interesting to me. I think the worst thing I can ever remember about being in school, is when the teacher seemed bored in class. I think if the teacher’s bored, then the students are going to be bored. So that becomes the work. You have to still find something fresh and interesting and remember what it’s like on the other side. While you’ve taught Hamlet eight times, they’re reading it for the first time, and you still have to make it accessible to them for the first time. They’re not going to pick up on all the innuendos that come second nature. You have to try to make it worth the connection,” said Gillespie.

Although he has no set long-term plans for the future, Gillespie does look forward to the all the commotion the fourth marking period brings.

‘”There’s something gratifying about teaching seniors I think. Some teachers don’t like it because they have a fear of senioritis and apathy, and they have one foot out the door. It’s April right now and I think the next month is the best, because graduation’s a fun time. It is a celebration, and there’s things to get excited about with prom and graduation and reflections and saying goodbye and all that. I think that’s an exciting part of peoples’ lives,” said Gillespie.