Rich began teaching in 1974, first in Irvington, N.J., then transferring to Belleville the following year. He began to lose his sight in the late '70s. His vision blurred, night blindness set in, and he went from reading books to only taking in words. Just before he lost his sight completely, he struggled to read one letter at a time. He started to doubt that he could be an effective teacher if he couldn't see his students.

In 1981 I lost my confidence, and when you don't have confidence, you feel like you can't do anything," he said. I went to tender my resignation to Michael Lally, my principal at that time and now our district superintendent. I was shocked when he refused to accept it. He said he believed in me and would get the necessary teacher aides for me to continue in my career. Belleville practiced inclusion before it was mandated, and I'll never forget it. Mr. Lally placed a role model (me) in front of the kids to show them that when adversity strikes, life doesn't stop. It merely changes direction on the pathway to success.

By 1983 Rich's vision was completely gone. He learned that contrary to popular opinion, when someone loses one sense, the others don't automatically improve. It's a matter of learning to use them more effectively He discovered he possessed hidden talents that he could sharpen, namely a photographic memory and total auditory recall. However, he still works hard at class preparation, spending hours listening to and memorizing tapes of textbooks.