2024 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS June/July 2024 Page 27 baseball player, but the only thing that really tugged at his heartstrings was teaching. He ultimately decided that he wanted to make a positive difference by becoming a teacher in a smaller school where he felt he would be able to make more of a connection with children, by instilling a feeling of confidence and trust. Growing up in a small rural area, he graduated from Witt High School, took college courses at Lincoln Land College, and went on to Eastern Illinois University to get his teaching certificate. Jerry tends to favor the subject of American History because of an influential professor from college. What he says he remembers the most about this professor was that he was always well prepared, used a lot of humor (mostly about his mother-in-law, but all in good fun), and was able to meld it all together to make each class interesting and leave the student wanting more. Before NHM, Mr. Neisler worked as a part-time teacher in Ramsey, and then was a substitute teacher for three years in the Mongomery County area. While at NHM, Mr. Neisler also coached track for ten years with a female student winning at State, and a male who finished sixth in the State, and in the late nineties, the girl's track team won at the County track meet. During Mr. Neisler's thirty-one years at NHM, he was the History Fair Sponsor where many students won blue ribbons at the State History Fair at the convention center in Springfield. Mr. Neisler estimated that he taught roughly 540 students over the years. Mr. Neisler will agree that being a teacher is extremely rewarding, but it is not as much of a gravy job as some may think because
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