Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I've had a stepfather (Jerry) since 19 December 1970, when I was 13½ years old. You may think that I was too old to be influenced by him, but I wasn't. (I'm still not.) I'll never forget the lessons I learned from him, most of which have stood me in good stead throughout my life. One day, we were working on the roof of our house in rural Michigan. It was getting dark; I was tired; and Mom was calling us to dinner. Jerry was taking altogether too much time cutting the sheet metal for the valley, as far as I was concerned. I saw a way to speed it up and said so. Jerry said it wouldn't be done right if he did it that way. "Who would know?" I asked. He stopped cutting and looked at me. "I would know."