18 Distinguished Men and Women Talk About Who Inspire Them Most (page 3 of 4)

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Reeve never gave up hope, says his children Matthew and Alexandra, who are both board members of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

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Investigative journalist Brenner (right), whose latest book is Apples & Oranges, received valuable career advice from Cooper.

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Thomas-EL (left), now principal of Russell Byers Charter School in Philadelphia, with devoted teacher Pincus.

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Joy Glenn

Brown and Berra earlier this year.

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Baseball great Mays in the 1950s.

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Thomas-EL (left), now principal of Russell Byers Charter School in Philadelphia, with devoted teacher Pincus.

I'm sort of a self-basting turkey. No one comes to mind as an inspiration. No teachers, and my parents never dispatched advice.

Honestly, the only person I can think of is a sort-of boyfriend who came to visit me in Boston the summer before I graduated from college. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself. He said, "It has to be creative." For some reason, that stuck with me. He did not.

If I could have been anything in my life, it would not have been a TV anchorman; it would have been a baseball player. I wanted to catch the ball the way Willie Mays [now 77] did. I wanted to hit the ball the way Willie Mays did. If he played stickball, I wanted to play stickball. Anything he did, I wanted to do. I just felt that with his great style and play on the field, Willie was the best, and I couldn't get enough of him when I was a kid.

He always played flat out. There was nothing subtle about Willie. He was so direct. I have always admired directness. Other people, as I came up over the years, showed me this quality, too, but Willie stood out.

Americans historically have admired straight talk, even if we don't agree with it. We want to know what's on a person's mind in an understandable way. Of all the people in my life, I have Willie Mays to thank for first modeling directness for me-it has made my career.

Pianist Lang Lang on opera star Luciano Pavarotti

Pavarotti's voice was like the sun- so bright, pure, and sensitive that it opened up your heart. It still does that for me whenever I hear his recordings [he died in 2007]. With his talent, he was able to bring classical music and the opera to a wide audience. Once people heard this man sing, their lives were changed.

Pavarotti inspired me to do the same as a pianist. That's the real reason I wanted to perform at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this past summer. I feel beautiful music should be shared, not hoarded; it teaches us to feel what we might not have felt.

It touches our souls and helps us understand the world in a more imaginative and precise way.

I will forever admire this man for bringing music to so many lives, for reaching out to others, and for inspiring me to do the same.

Educator Salome Thomas-El on teacher Marsha Pincus

She took the time to ask whether her students had eaten breakfast in the morning, or if they had enough warm clothes to wear in winter, or if there was someone there for them when they got home from school. My English teacher, Marsha Pincus, did all that and more for me when I was growing up in inner-city Philadelphia, one of eight kids raised by a single mother.

Mrs. Pincus told me to come by or to call her if I needed to. She cared about me. She gave a skinny kid like me some extra support. Sometimes all it takes to succeed is a little help.

I had always been something of a smart-mouth when I was young, but Mrs. Pincus helped me channel my enthusiasm into something constructive. When she was out on maternity leave with her first child, a substitute teacher came in for English class. On the first day, this teacher had trouble controlling the classroom. I watched kids cutting up in front of her and got really mad. This was my favorite class; I loved learning Shakespeare.

I knew the substitute would talk to Mrs. Pincus and that she'd be disappointed.

"We need to stop this!" I shouted.

Usually I was the one clowning around, but the kids seemed to listen. I ended up standing in front of the room discussing Julius Caesar. Later, the substitute told Mrs. Pincus about the skinny boy who taught the lesson. Mrs. Pincus said she knew right away what had happened.

"Without her even naming you, I knew it was you," she told me.

Her eyes shone with pride.

Looking back, I think that was when the teacher in me started to emerge.

Mrs. Pincus retired this year after more than 30 years of teaching.

I spoke at her retirement party. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But because of this lady's encouragement, I learned I belonged in the classroom, at the front of it.

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