MORE THAN GREASE AND SPARK PLUGS

One of the greatest aspects of satisfaction during teenage years is discovering a hobby that points to a profession. Sometimes, of course, it is a teacher that helps us gain confidence and ambition to pursue a given path. In the case of the popular auto shop program at Granada Hills High School, Granada Hills, Calif., Mr. Lee Mills has launched hundreds of automotive careers - and thousands of car buffs.

Just as I graduated from the "Mr. Mills" training program, and after 10 semesters and 550 hours of "auto shop" completed, in the special moment captured in this photo Lee Mills and I share a rewarding moment.  The plaque we are holding is the Pacific Automotive Show (aftermarket automotive industry/trade show) award to me as one of the "Top Ten Automotive Students in the Western United States." And as the only winner from southern California, I felt particularly fortunate - but as most people would understand, another reward was being able to show a dedicated teacher that he succeeded in inspiring a student ... and a career.

This was the event - and the moment - that sealed my ambition to stick with the automotive career path. Today I enjoy giving regular auto news updates to my close friend "Mr. Mills," and I now get to call him "Lee."

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Below is a fun update with Lee Mills ... what is better than having a teacher who changes your life by becoming your mentor?  Being able to reconnect with that teacher/mentor decades later to "give back" a salute of gratitude. 

In the photo below, I am holding the very same "Top Ten Automotive Student" award that Lee Mills nominated me for at Granada Hills High School.   In 2004, a group of San Fernando Valley business people created a unique "life-changing teacher-recognition award" titled the "Walk of Hearts".   When I learned that a nomination simply required a 150-word essay on 'how this teacher was life-changing' -- I knew that would be the easiest 150 words I'd ever write!

In 2004, Granada Hills Auto Shop Instructor Lee Mills became one of the newest additions to a special strip of sidewalk on Sherman Way in Canoga Park, Calif., titled the Walk of Hearts.  Below Lee's lifetime achievement award appears in brass on the sidewalk at the San Fernando Valley corner of Sherman Way Blvd. and Owensmouth St.   It was a special very moment to join "Mr. Mills" with a lifetime "Thank YOU!"
 

Former Granada Hills High School Auto Shop student Steve Ford (L)
holds the Pacific Automotive Show's "Top Ten Student - Western United States"
Award that he received from Lee Mills (R) when Ford was an auto student at
Granada Hills High School.  The plaque embedded in the sidewalk shown below
Ford and Mills in this photo is the "Walk of Hearts" lifetime achievement award
that resulted from Ford's nomination and essay about how Lee Mills was an inspiring
 and life-changing auto shop instructor for thousands of automotive students
over Mills' career as a teacher at Granada Hills High School.

Visit the Walk of Hearts website www.walkofhearts.com


In another captured moment with Lee Mills, above he is joined by a
gracious Jay Leno visiting with Mills and Steve Ford (R) at California's
Irwindale Raceway following a media test drive event for Irwindale's cart driving
circuit.  As a genuine car buff, Leno was on site for the day's Society of
Automotive Historians' annual Literature Fair at Irwindale Raceway.