"My favorite math professor at LMU was Fr. Clarence Wallen. His intelligence and generosity made a profound impact on me. At one point in the Non-Euclidean Geometry course I took from him, I was asked to present my proof of a theorem. After I was done, Fr. Wallen gave me the best compliment I ever got at LMU: He said he liked my proof better than the one he had prepared in his teaching notes! Fast forward a few years to when I was teaching math at Hawthorne High School and then at Redondo Union High School. Whenever I got the chance, I would give that same compliment to my students. I could see the look in their eyes, and see them sit up a little straighter, and I could tell it was having the same effect on them as it had on me. I always remembered Fr. Wallen in those moments, paying it forward."