John Sawchuk, then an assistant principal Columbia High School, speaks during a freshman orientation in 2004.

Principal of Columbia High School, John Sawchuk, at the school in East Greenbush, July 10, 2006.

The notes taped to a wall at Columbia High School were expressions of sorrow and gratitude, mostly.

Some referred back to that dark day in 2004 when John Sawchuk, then an assistant principal, stopped a school shooting by tackling a teenager armed with a pump-action shotgun. But most were about things Sawchuk had done before and after that day, during his long career as a classroom teacher in Ballston Spa and an administrator in Cohoes and East Greenbush.

"John believed in me from the moment we met," said one handwritten, unsigned note posted at the memorial Wednesday. "He pushed publicly and forcefully for my success and made sure I'd be a teacher. He'll be missed."

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You can imagine that the best educators among us live for testimonials like that. The profession at its best, after all, is about changing lives. And there is little doubt that Sawchuk, who died suddenly late last month at the age of 61, changed many, many lives.

"He never gave up on a kid," said Cathi Sawchuk, his wife of 35 years. "He would always see that little light that somebody neglected to see and give them a second chance."

With broad shoulders, a big chest and a strong jaw, Sawchuk was a living, breathing rebuke to the nerdy "Bueller, Bueller" portrayal of teachers so common in Hollywood movies. At Columbia, where he became principal in 2006,........

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