Timothy Cathcart has only just started working at Broad Run this year (2024). He has quite an intriguing story of his experiences and life before becoming a math teacher.
Cathcart is a retired Brigadier General in the US Air National Guard. He comes from a family on the struggling side of wealth. As a result, he enlisted in the US Air National Guard primarily for college money. His enlistment would help him gain a love for learning and allow him to earn his Ph.D., 4x Masters, B.S., A.A. and 5x industry certifications.
He started off assigned on the C-130 cargo aircraft. He has worked on Joint Chiefs of Staff, Headquarters Air Force, National Guard Bureau, and Unit Commander.
Cathcart retired out of the airforce after about 32 years of service at age 49. In his eyes, that is an early retirement. His family was asking him what he was going to do during this time. Left wondering if he would be wasting his retirement years away on the porch. Cathcart wanted to work in some capacity that was also of service, as his life has been defined by that work. Not wanting to work for money, he heard the need for math teachers and decided that he could pursue that with his previous math degree. So he went to school to get his masters in education.
When asked what lessons he has learned in his time served, he responds: “Always maximize learning. Always be learning, it doesn’t have to be university or certifications. Always be learning.” Cathcart then goes on into more detail. “Stuff changes all the time and if all you’re doing is writing off from what you learned 40 years ago, you’re going to be in a very unhappy place because that’s not what the world is like. If you condition yourself so that you like learning, spend a certain amount of time learning and you make that part of your characteristics then that is going to serve you well in life. That is one thing that has helped me in all of my positions.”
He began running into certain rules and beliefs that prevented him from being the best teacher he thought he could be in Tennessee, so naturally, he and his wife Sue, who he has been married to for 31+ years, decided to move. The two remembered their motorcycle rides through Leesburg which made them familiar with the area. Their familiarity and past encounters with Leesburg allowed them to acknowledge its beauty and peace. Some days the two would walk downtown and eat dinner and then walk back, enjoying the scenic view of their new town.
He decided to keep teaching once they moved to Leesburg, as he still felt that he was energetic enough to continue work. He applied to Loudon County and he was hired. Eventually, Mr. Spage reached out and asked him to be a math teacher for Broad Run. Cathcart was looking for a school closer to his home but decided to accept. Though he was not looking forward to the commute, he says that it cancels out because “I gotta tell you, this is the best-run school I have ever seen.” Despite his previous subbing when he first moved and the amount of schools he has substituted in before moving to Virginia, “This place has got it going on. This is worth the commute.”
“I’m kind of an arrogant person. When I was a Major, I would look at the Lieutenant Colonel and go ‘I could do this job’ and ‘I should be promoted’ or ‘I could do his job better than he’s doing’. I look around Broad Run and I don’t think I could do a better job than the admins doing. For me to say something like that is pretty significant.” (Timothy Cathcart)
When asked what advice he would give the students of Broad Run, he replies “Fortune favors the prepared” meaning that a lot of life is luck, but more of it is the willingness and readiness to step up when luck presents you with the opportunity. This statement also goes back to being attuned with education and being open to new ideas. Instead of focusing on the things that you are not getting or happening, you should be focusing on the things that are getting presented to you. It’s the idea about not burning bridges and keeping an eye out for the opportunities that you do have, even if it is not the opportunity you planned for.
