Dad Sends Home Ec Teacher a $10K Check — 37 Years After Graduating

Kansas City engineer Kevin Perz made his high school teacher proud, sending her a sweet note of thanks (and serious money) in January. She tells Yahoo Parenting about her shock and awe over his generosity. (Photo: Ashtin Hart)  

Instead of just reminiscing about his favorite high school teachers, 56-year-old Kevin Perz has been reaching out to thank them. And he’s put his money where his mouth is. The Kansas City tool company owner sent his former home economics teacher $10,000 this January, prompting her to speak out today about how he’s become the educator now — in Gratitude 101.

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“Getting a call would have been enough,” Marilyn Mecham, 62, tells Yahoo Parenting. “When I saw the check from him I was a mess,” says the Lincoln, Nebraskan currently working at the non-profit Mentors. “His expression of gratitude is so remarkable that I wanted to share the story so it might inspire other people to do it too.”

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Photo: Marilyn Mecham

Perz — a junior at Chesterfiled, Missouri’s Parkway Central High School and one of just three boys in a class of 22 taught by first-year teacher Mecham in 1976 — tells Yahoo Parenting that he simply wanted her to know he was thankful for the support she gave him all those years ago.

“I loved high school,” says the father of four. “And Ms. Mecham treated me with such respect. She helped me develop into who I wanted to be. My letter said that and the money stamped it. I was just really appreciative of hers and my other teachers’ involvement in my life.”

Photo: Marilyn Mecham/Facebook

That’s right, Perz has played Santa to other teachers too. The engineer gave his former calculus teacher, Mr. Putz, $5,000 in 1992, and his 9th grade business teacher Miss Fisher $10,000 in 2012, among other gifts to people, the details of which he’s keeping to himself.

“The older you get, the better your memories of the past become,” he says. “Something happens today and it’s just a piece in a lot of little pieces of a puzzle. But after 10 years of reflection you realize it was actually really important.”

Perz’s kids are grown (each pursing engineering in his footsteps) and he says that his gifts aren’t part of any do-gooding lesson for them. But they’ve still gotten the message. His son Johnny, a college sophomore, posted a link to one of the stories about Perz’s present to Mecham on Facebook with “My dad is the best man I know,” as introduction. “That made me feel proud,” Perz admits. “I was touched.”

Perz in grade 12 school photo, 1977. (Photo: Nicole Neal)

All he wants his children, and the world for that matter, to know is that “there’s always an opportunity to show appreciation for things,” he says.

Mecham tells Yahoo Parenting that she’s already starting to see others respond to the sentiment. “What has really hit me was when I shared the story with my three kids and all of their responses were, ‘I wish I could do something like that.’ I have never heard one person say, ‘I wish someone had done that for me.’”

The financial reward is wonderful, of course, says Mecham, but it’s that sentiment that she truly treasures — and urges others to share with the special people in their circle. “Please reach out to somebody in your life,” she says. “That’s what is really important.”

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