The teacher asked her class, "Who invented the telephone?"
An eager learner, Bill sat on the edge of his seat in patched overalls. His hand flew up.
"Alexander Graham Bell," he said.
Another hand shot up.
"No, it's Don Ameche."
The class and the teacher laughed, in on the joke. Don Ameche starred in the movie of Bell's life.
Bill, too poor to go to movies, knew he was the butt of the joke, and vowed he would never ridicule anyone this way.
Two hundred former students honored their mentor at his retirement dinner in 1987.