Chemistry teacher John Sudbury and Physics teacher John Davis – the multiple-year victors of the “most dynamic duo award” because of their noticeable connection and childlike relationship. Students believe teachers only work and consider them not like “real” people, but the two science teachers show the reality of a friendship and enjoying what they do for a living as they shape minds at Legacy.
“When I met him my first thoughts were that he was someone with more teaching experience than me,” Mr. Sudbury said. “I thought I could learn something.”
Part of the duo’s notorious reputation includes infamous pranks they have pulled around the school on staff members and even some pranks they get credit for that they had no hand in. An innocent and cheap household item became a centerpiece in their mischievous acts, like sticky notes. The two swore up and down to biology teacher Ms. Michelle Fagan after she accused them of sticky-noting her car. As the guilty party, they, of course, could not convince Ms. Fagan of their innocence. Another teacher who saw them pulling the stunt ratted them out.
Not keeping to a one-track area of pranking, they also placed a mannequin in a dark closet for Mr. Leonard Cousins to walk in to find.
“We like to use our evil for constructive purposes together,” Mr. Davis said.
In the past few years, the science teachers have retired from the art of pranking and instead found other activities to bond with. Through the 11 years they have worked together, Mr. Sudbury’s and Mr. Davis’ relationship has noticeably grown through inside jokes and laughs.
“My first impression of Sudbury was that he was a golden god,” Mr. Davis said. “A hero of science even.”
Among the legacies Mr. Sudbury and Mr. Davis have left, their name in the yearbook remains the best known. Initially, they used the name ‘Davisbury’ for a logo in a video they made, and the name has stuck with them ever since.
“It is always fun to see people’s reactions,” Mr. Davis said. “Especially when people who have walked by the door with the sign ‘Davisbury’ for years and realize it is the door in between us. It makes them happy.”
The ID picture started when Mr. Sudbury poked his head into Mr. Davis’ ID photo during the photo taking process. The woman who took the photo, unable to crop Mr. Sudbury out, kept it that way. Mr. Davis returned the gesture on Mr. Sudbury’s photo, and began a tradition. As the years have gone by, the ID and yearbook photos have gotten more elaborate, now including props.
“We wanted to be featured in our nationally-acclaimed yearbook as Davisbury,” Sudbury said. “Going to Sears to get them done wouldn’t cut it.”
The pair’s relationship has extended outside of school to hockey games, a solar viewing party and concerts. Mr. Sudbury and Mr. Davis attended a concert where Sudbury knew the performer, Mike McCoor, who serenaded Mr. Sudbury with a Texas country love song at the concert.
“It was fantastic,” Mr. Davis said. “It was one of the highlights really.”
Even more memories made in the two rooms that belong to the teachers. Mr. Davis and Mr. Sudbury both have a knack for making silly games to keep them entertained throughout the school year. These games have varied from helicopter darts to racquetball ping pong to simply throwing a roll of tape to the other and catching it with scissors. During the scissors and tape game, Mr. Sudbury got the roll of tape stuck in the hole in the ceiling where a missing tile used to fit. Mr. Davis then got on top of a lab table with a chair and crawled up with a meter stick to find it. Mr. Sudbury led further with the problem by tossing his pair of scissors up in the ceiling with the tape causing more trouble for Mr. Davis and his meter stick.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m the parent, and he is the kid,” Mr. Sudbury said.
The relationship of the science teachers, obviously anything but serious, includes the sending of memes back and forth doing the day and constant jokes they make to and about each other. These memes, according to the teachers, have to exemplify grade A status. If one sends a bad-quality meme he gets shunned by the other until he redeems himself. Mr. Sudbury’s and Mr. Davis’ relationship through their humorous banter, though, does have a genuine foundation of mutual fondness and a connective bond.
“Everybody is just so serious,” Mr. Sudbury said. “We just like to have fun.”
