Whether it is commanding a satellite like the Hubble Space Telescope or helping out a student like you and me, Mr. Killian has always had a keen sense for guidance. Before his career as Pascack Hills’s math prodigy, he actually built and designed guidance systems for satellites that orbit around our Earth. Now, most students are lucky enough to have Mr. Killian guide them through calculus. So, when he says it is not rocket science, he really means it!

While Mr. Killian’s classroom may lie in the math wing, his heart has surprisingly always been loyal to physics. However, as assumed, he claims to have been the best math student in his graduating class, also being known as “the only one who took the AP Calculus exam.”

As much as we love to believe our teachers eat, sleep and breathe in school, this was not the case for Mr. Killian. In high school, he was in the band and wrote for his school newspaper. Unfortunately, he was rejected from his high school’s baseball team, partly due to his class’s large size of 500 students. Professional baseball may have been out of the question, but with his work with satellites, he did come pretty close to his dream job of becoming an astronaut.

Unconvincingly labeling himself as funny, smart and quiet in high school, Mr. Killian says, “The kids in high school had a different impression of me than those where I worked.” A cashier at the Hackensack Pathmark, Mr. Killian found himself hanging out with a lot of these friends who came to learn just how fun he was to be around. Mr. Killian says that he never got in trouble, stating he “was never the one who got caught.” However, there was one party that sealed the fate of the rest of his life: “There was one time I took one girl to a party and went home with a different one. The first one got really mad at me. The second one eventually became my wife.” What a party!

For years, Mr. Killian has been guiding his students toward success. Today, he leaves us all with an important message: “Fall in love with learning…Do activities and favor classes that you enjoy and will help you grow… Don’t mold yourself into someone who’s not you just to get into a particular school.” Doing what he loves all throughout his life, Mr. Killian is leading this philosophy by example. He encourages you to do the same.