He has been a flight navigator and lawyer for the Navy, an American representative in the joint U.S.-Icelandic defense council and a county judge.

None of this, however, tops his insatiable love for teaching, which has led Durham out of the field and into Saratoga classrooms as a substitute teacher—a venture he finds more rewarding than any of his other accomplishments.

Durham has been substituting for the Saratoga Union School District for a little over a month. He moved last year with his wife, Nancy, a retired elementary school teacher, from their native Texas to Saratoga when her mother—Ruth Boyd, a Saratoga resident since 1968—became ill. It was only planned to be a temporary move, but has since "become a long-term plan. We love it here and want to stay," Durham says.

As soon as he could after relocating, Durham signed up to become a substitute teacher. He always enjoyed teaching and routinely found ways of doing so, whether it was giving courses in search and seizure procedures while working as a lawyer for the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command or by teaching business law while a judge in Johnson County, Texas.

Between career moves, there were times when he was a full-time teacher, but he never stayed in the profession due to his "unquenchable urge to travel."

Many members of his family have been teachers, including both his mother and father. This might explain why, even after all he has done, teaching is the most natural and enjoyable occupation he has found.

"There is so much satisfaction and excitement in teaching," Durham says, "especially with the younger grades."

Surprisingly, teaching has been one of Durham's most daunting career moves. "My first day of substituting here I was so nervous, even more than I ever felt before going to trial," he says, and then adds with a hearty grin, "I've got this Southern humor, and I just didn't know how it would go over."


Fly away

Growing up in Cleburne, Texas, Durham remembers having a plane mobile hanging over his bed. He was always interested in flying, which is most likely why in the midst of studying for his education degree at Abilene Christian College, he decided to sign up to become a Navy pilot. "Coming from the Midwest, there was a mystique about the ocean. I just had to follow that," he says.

Four days after graduation, Durham was able to pursue the mystery, as he found himself in training, in Pensacola, Fla., to become a flight officer.

Immediately after training, Durham was sent on a tour of Vietnam, where his crew spent close to a year on the U.S.S. Ranger aircraft carrier off the coast at Yankee Station, an operating area in the Tonkin Gulf. Durham reflects on this experience, like most of his others, with a bright excitement and exact details. And what he can't exactly describe in words, he can show through his extensive memorabilia, displayed in a room full of photos and retired uniforms.

After Vietnam, Durham was shipped to Antarctica for a "deep freeze" mission. He spent two five-month shifts watching over research scientists who were studying emperor and Adelie penguins. He expected the cold weather, but there were several events Durham was not prepared for, such as investigating a death in the South Pole or his initial welcome to the pole base, when he discovered that while polar bears do not inhabit Antarctica, the Polar Bear Club certainly does.

"It was quite a surprise to enter the base and have five naked men charge toward you, all screaming, and then run outside around the American flag with no shoes on," Durham said, laughing. "The Polar Bear Club is a very real thing, let me tell you."

With an elevation of close to 10,000 feet and an average temperature of 30 degrees below zero in the summer, Durham explains the impossibility of taking pictures to document the trip—the lens freezes up within seconds. "It's so cold that you can't even blow your nose because your snot freezes up so fast," says Durham.

Interestingly enough, despite the cold and ice, Antarctica is the driest place on earth, receiving less than two inches of rain per year. Durham discovered that fact when chatting with the department heads of NASA, who came to Antarctica with the astronauts to practice for the first moon landing. They set up in the dry valleys, a stretch of land that is the closest thing on earth to the terrain on the moon.

Talking about Antarctica is one of Durham's greatest joys when engaging with Saratoga students. He especially enjoys sharing with the younger grades, where the children are able to get down on the floor and play with all the penguin paraphernalia that Durham has amassed since his passion for the birds was ignited during his stay.

After his second deep-freeze venture, Durham left the Navy. Heading to San Diego that same year, he met up with Nancy, his longtime girlfriend, who he married shortly thereafter.

Looking for a new career, Durham turned toward law, continuing his education at Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas. But after passing the Texas bar exam, Durham realized his heart was still with the Navy.

And so he applied to the Judge Advocate General's Corps to be a military lawyer. Durham was selected to join the extremely competitive corps and soon reported to naval justice school in Rhode Island, where all new lawyers enroll in an eight-week course that instructs them in military law. While taking classes, Nancy gave birth to Alton, their first child.

Once finished, Durham was sent to Florida, where he reunited with his family. He was involved in several high-profile cases, and then it was onto Keflavik, Iceland, where Durham had the opportunity to be part of the U.S.-Icelandic defense council as one of three representatives to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. The council dealt largely with NATO and the tracking of Russian submarines off of the coast.


'God bless' Nixon

Durham has several vivid memories from Iceland. One of the most memorable was when his wife made then-president Richard Nixon cry.

Nixon had come to Keflavik to meet a visiting French dignitary, and he stopped during his travels to shake hands with forces at the naval base. "Watergate was just breaking, and you could see his stress," says Durham. After shaking Durham's hand, Nixon went to shake Nancy's hand. "She said to him, 'God bless you, Mr. President,' " and tears just started welling up in his eyes," Durham explains intently. "He thanked her and held onto her hand for over a minute."

At 3 a.m. on Jan. 22, 1973, another historical event occurred. Durham and his wife had their second child, D'Ann. Durham remembers the exact time and date of the birth because at that moment a plane crashed onto the naval base and a volcano began erupting in Iceland. Later that day, former President Lyndon Johnson died and the verdict of the Roe v. Wade decision concerning legalized abortion was announced. "Her birth makes for a good dinner party story," jokes Durham.

After two years in Iceland, Durham had the opportunity to transfer to the destination of his choice. Numerous talks with friends led Durham and family to move to Puerto Rico, where he became a lawyer for the admiral in charge of the Caribbean command. Durham worked mostly on appeal cases in San Juan until he was selected to work on the largest environmental case to that date.

The government of Vieques Island—a small island off of Puerto Rico, half-owned by the American military—sued the Navy. The case revolved around the Navy's practice of pooling military carriers at that location to practice amphibious landings. "It was the only area where the entire Atlantic fleet could train together," says Durham, "but the government said the practices were killing ocean wildlife." The heated case lasted six months, involving multiple demonstrations and protests against the American government. In the end, the judge voted in favor of the Navy. "It was an exciting time," Durham says. "Unfortunately after all of that work, three years ago an F-18 aircraft misfired and hit the island, setting off controversy again. I cried when I heard it because we had put in so much effort."

Durham's other outstanding case during this period earned him a prized joint service commendation medal for his work—he was on the team that represented the Department of Justice on injunctions concerning the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

A year later, Durham transferred to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the Navy's appellate defense team, and then as a liaison for representatives of the U.S. Supreme Court. He spent five years in Washington before deciding to retire. And this time, after a second stint of16 years of service, he was sure of it.

While retirement might normally entail relaxing and taking up a few hobbies like shuffleboard or growing prize-winning orchids, Durham decided to move back to Texas and become a felony prosecutor.

In truth, his initial post-retirement move was part of reviving an old dream—that of full-time teaching. But after a year of teaching seventh-grade world history, the district attorney of Johnson County recruited him. With the blessing of the school's superintendent, "who always wanted a lawyer on his side," Durham consented and went back to the courts.


Here comes the judge

Fifty-five convictions and no acquittals later, Durham stepped up to bat again. This time his new adventure was as county judge in a 750-square-mile county that had more trouble brewing than expected.

Durham was surprised to find that such a small, rural community suffered from rampant juvenile drug abuse and gang problems, which could largely be attributed to parents who commuted to work in Dallas and Fort Worth. "I took my job very seriously," Durham says, "but it was fun and there were some very interesting cases."

Interesting would be an understatement when describing the case that involved a man driving into a bank lobby, which he said he did because the sign for car deposits said "drive through."

In 1994, after four years of judgeship, Durham lost in his bid for reelection. True to form, Durham did not see this as a letdown but a chance for a new window of opportunity. He began substitute teaching in Texas elementary schools a year later, after earning his master's degree in history from Tarleton State—a goal of his since the 1970s.

Three years of subbing and a degree later, he and his wife, who had been teaching elementary school throughout his various career changes, decided this was the perfect time for yet another retirement phase and relocated to California.

After roughly a year of transition and settling in, Durham was on the Internet, learning about substitute teaching in Saratoga. Upon passing the required California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) for substitute teaching and paying the specified fees, he began his new career. His first day was at Redwood Middle School, in a science class where, fortunately for the students, they were studying Antarctica.

Photograph by George Sakkestad Working with children has been one of Durham's greatest joys. He enjoys educating students through interactive methods, as he does in this third-grade class at Foothill Elementary School.

Although the area is very affluent and students have more opportunities than impoverished districts where Durham has taught previously, he finds that the children are not all that much different.

"You might have $2 million homes surrounding the school, but the kids don't dress any different than when I taught in schools that had 80 percent of the children on free lunch," says Durham. "They are just kids being kids, which is great."

Durham is very content with his new life, striking a balance between a calmer, semi-retired lifestyle and the pursuit of a lifelong dream.

"Of all my past accomplishments, I get more satisfaction out of substituting here in Saratoga than anything else I have ever done."