The Chemistry of Joy (the remarkable life of Frank "Doc" Maples)

It was my first day ever at Bristol Tennessee High School. The previous year I had attended Bluff City Jr. High and most all of my friends went on from there to East High School out in the county. Yet somehow (due to another story I will not tell here) I wound up being a Tennessee High School Viking.

So there I sat … a lonely, shy freshman in a room filled with people I did not know.

I don’t remember a thing about that first day, except my chemistry class. A man named Frank “Doc” Maples was my chemistry teacher.

In what I would come to find out was a commonplace superpower of his, Doc sensed my inner feelings - my discomfort and alienation. So near the end of class he came over to me, bent low and whispered in my ear:

“Young Benjamin, welcome to Bristol Tennessee High School. I can tell you are sad about it all right now. But you will make new friends here. You are gonna love my chemistry class and you will absolutley loooooooove being a Viking. Now wipe that silly frown off your face right this instant and do whatever you do the rest of today with joy, young man.”

Then Doc sashayed away. (Doc had a way of sashaying everywhere he went.)

In time I would learn that you simply could not be around Doc for long without feeling a sense of joy.

Doc was not only a chemistry and biology teacher. He also served as the trainer for the football teams at Tennessee High from 1956 - 1982 (hence the name “Doc”), as well as cooking every pre-game meal for each football team every year.

Doc only missed two THS football games in 60 years. (Dear reader, you might want to read the monumental dedication entrenched within that last sentence again.)

During the long-time Arbys Christmas Basketball Tournament, he served as Hospitality Director; cooking, directing and serving meals for as many as 400 people, twice a day.

Indeed, Frank “Doc” Maples was beloved by many.

Mimi Kind, a teaching colleague of Doc’s: “I loved him so much!!! I have many Doc stories! I remember when I was pregnant and would be craving chocolate, I would send a kid upstairs to tell him. In just a little while he would send down two huge pieces of fudge…still warm! Yum!”

(By the way, I once visited Doc at his home in Elizabethton, not long before he passed away. Of course, he had to fix me something to eat.)

Though he never married nor had any children of his own, a specialty of Doc’s was making handmade quilts for newborn babies. When he found out a young couple was about to have their first baby, a quilt made by Doc’s own hands often came their way.

No, Doc never married … nor ever even dated so far as anyone seemed to know. He instead dedicated his life, 100% of it, to the students at Tennessee High School. (That, and taking care of his dear mother during her last years at their home in Elizabethton.)

Former student, Nancy Godsey Butterworth: “Oh, how I adored that man!”

Former student, Lisa Meadows Crisman: “He was the favorite teacher for everyone!”

Former student, Tom Mullins: “One of my favorite teachers of all time! Teacher, trainer, pregame meal cook, and Interact sponsor.”

Former students Doug Cooper and Tara Tolbert: “What a character! Did a split in front of our chemistry class.”

Doc was not all fun and games, however. He could flat out teach. In fact, he was the 1961 Science Teacher of the Year in Tennessee.

Former student, David Greene: “He was a creative teacher who really worked to get me through chemistry. He had such a kind heart. RIP Doc.”

Doc also had an “equal rights” penchant about him. Without saying a single thing about race, he made all ethnicities feel treated with equal dignity in his presence.

Same with the monumental “gender gap” which existed (and still too often does) back in the day. He made girls feel like they were “smart” at science. Not only did he make them feel it, he showed them.

How fitting then that the Doc Maples Holiday Hoops Classic is part of his lasting legacy at THS. Established in 1996, this multi-day December event honors Doc by bringing together the best girls basketball teams in our area to play each other. (THS did not have a girls basketball team when I was there, a fact Doc often overtly lamented aloud.)

Doc made it to 90. He’d be 101 if still with us.

Rumor has it that Doc practically had to be “forced” into retirement from his full-time teaching position. He didn’t retire until age 78, which is older than any public school teacher of which I have heard.

As Doc would say, “Just hush your mouth and thank the good Lord above for it all.”