'A light went off in my head': A professor honors his high school civics teacher

By Laura Kwerel

Published October 23, 2024 at 5:00 AM EDT

Malcolm Campbell (left) and Don Lawson from their yearbook.

This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team. It features stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.

In 1980, when Malcolm Campbell was a senior in high school, he took a civics class with a teacher named Don Lawson. One of the units that Mr. Lawson taught was about the 1960s, and the backlash to the Vietnam War.

For two days, Mr. Lawson played them anti-war songs by Bob Dylan, to illustrate that art can be an important vehicle for protest. On the second day, Campbell raised his hand, with a question.

"Is this gonna be on the test?" he recalled asking.

"And Mr. Lawson looked at me and said, 'No, man, this is for you,'" Campbell said.

That's when Campbell had a flash of insight about what Mr. Lawson was trying to do.

"It was like in the movies," Campbell remembered. "A light went off in my head, and I realized, 'Oh my gosh, he's planned this material not for the content, but for personal enrichment — for my own edification.'"

Malcolm Campbell in his office at Davidson College in 2020.

Campbell went on to earn a PhD in molecular cell biology. From there, he spent 30 years teaching biology at Davidson College in North Carolina. All along, he kept the lessons of Mr. Lawson in the back of his mind.

"I tried to impart to my students the idea that you should be as greedy as possible in school, and learn as much as possible," Campbell said.

"Don't worry about pleasing me. Do it for yourself."

Campbell recently retired from teaching. But looking back at his long academic career, one of his proudest accomplishments was helping students have their own moments of epiphany.

"That's an amazing career — that essentially I go around flipping lit matches onto piles of leaves and watching them take fire," Campbell said.

"And that's pretty cool. Because once they really understand what learning is, all you gotta do is add that match, and poof ... they're going to learn the rest of their lives," Campbell said.

"And that's what Mr. Lawson did for me."

My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.