In CHS’s computer lab, the Boneyard, there are two offices. One is for lead teacher Marci Tuzinsky and the other belongs to Jim Leach, CHS’s Technical Specialist. This has been Leach’s office or, as he refers to it, “his home,” since 1999.
However, being a Technical Specialist was never part of his plan. In fact, Leach never really had a plan. He intended to go to Hope College but after two weeks, he decided it was too much of a small town and wasn’t for him. He then transferred to U of M with the hopes that it would be a better fit. After one semester he lost interest in school and dropped out.
Again, unsure of what he wanted, Leach found himself working at Kinko’s, an Ann Arbor photo stop, and writing short stories.
It was not until Leach heard a Philosophical Aesthetics professor speak at an arts conference that he wanted to go back to school.
“What was most exciting to me was the way he answered questions. People were asking him confrontational questions and he had this fantastic way of answering, like ‘Of course we all agree on this,’” said Leach. “He had this great way of responding to questions by honoring it but also defusing any tension. I really wanted to learn that skill.”
He decided to re-enroll at U of M and finish his degree.
“I decided that I wasn’t going to plan what my major was. Every term I would go to open the course selection book and took whatever looks good,” said Leach. “Then at the end of two years I’d go back and look at my transcript and say ‘Oh, I must have majored in this, then I’ll take any other remaining requirements.’”
When Leach looked back on the courses he took, it was a double major in English and Philosophy.
Leach and his wife, Janice Leach, moved to Toronto, where he got his masters and almost all of his doctorate degree. He completed everything except the comprehensive exams. He chose not to become a professor because there was no career opportunity; there were only two other Philosophical Aesthetics professors in North America.
The couple moved back to Ann Arbor, where they shared the executive director position in a small theater for exactly one year.
Mrs. Leach got a job working for the district doing computer technical work. Meanwhile, Leach was writing at home, but soon after he decided to get a job working with his wife. They worked together for a year. Mrs. Leach decided to go back to U of M to get masters in education and Leach decided to stay. This is how he found himself at the doors of CHS.
Leach began at CHS as a Technical Assistant, but after a year he transferred to Huron High School. After a year at HHS, he was promoted to Technical Specialist and divided his time between CHS, A2 Tech (formerly Stone), and Roberto Clemente.
A Technical Specialist provides frontline computer support. “A good teacher can teach with a stick scribing in the sand and my job is to help make twenty first century technology feel like that technology.”
Leach enjoys his job. “ I like the idea that I am working for education, kind of like I am working for society.”
Although he maintained the same career for 13 years, he continued to explore his other passions. Leach is a creative writer, performed playwrighter, and blogger.
“I am a performed playwright, which means people have actually performed my work,” said Leach. “I wrote a play that won national play writing contest in 1992 and it had a premiere in 2006.”
Leach is also proud of brewing his own beer. “I have been a home brewer since the early ‘90s. If I do say so myself, I am really good at it.”
He has a tattoo that represents his technical yet artistic lifestyle. “It’s [a] two ended [wrench], so it reminds me when you make a change in the world you’re also making a change in yourself and vice versa.”
He also plans to get another tattoo: a resonating hole on a cello, an instrument he has played since sixth grade. “I wanted the technical piece on my left arm and the artistic piece on my right arm, sort of inverting the left-brain right-brain idea.”
Currently, Leach works at CHS once a week. The other four days he works at Skyline. “My office at Skyline is fantastic; it’s a Tech’s dream. It is set up better than most computer labs set up for reimaging machines,” said Leach. “But that’s the city mouse. [CHS] still feels like home. I have thirteen years of junk on my walls.”
Going back and forth from Skyline, Leach has to get used to the name changes.
“… There was a student who knew me from [CHS] and they said, ‘Hey Jim, How’s it going?’ And the guy I shared my office with said, ’Don’t you mean Mr. Leach?’ And I go, ‘Oh yes, that’s right.’”
Although Leach is only at CHS once a week, he is easily recognizable by his facial hair. “When I was a kid I wanted to grow and be like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings,” said Leach. “For a while I guess I was really going for that.”
CHS has not only been home to Leach; it has also been home to Leach’s family. While he has worked at CHS, Leach’s two children have graduated from CHS. Mrs. Leach also worked in the ILC for a year.
“I have a great affinity for Community. I can’t remember exactly how someone defined it, but they said something like ‘Don’t mess with Jim and Community.’”
