Professor Ty

Ty was rarely called into the dean's office. He usually was in there once or twice a year for a review or for the dean to remind him to try for bigger journals to get published in. Ty wasn't terrifically interested in being published. He only did as much as he needed to in order to maintain his professorship. Mostly, he wanted to keep his head down, teach 5 days a week and go home and be with his wife and kids. He liked teaching because he was respected. His colleagues respected him. people he met at parties that he was required to go to respected him. Most importantly, his students respected him. when he spoke in class, the class was quiet. That's the type of respect that you don't get many places. It's the type of honor conferred upon a pilot, or a president or an idiot in the wrong place with a fully automatic rifle. People sought Ty's opinion on things. People respected his views, be they political or otherwise. Ty derived a great deal of personal pleasure out of his work. However, he never articulated why, and mostly ignored the reason why he loved it. His wife knew why he loved it, but she humored him by never really pointing it out to him.
Together Ty and his wife had five kids. He had four boys: Lance, Leonard, Sal and Nedry. He felt bad about naming the last one Nedry. They'd picked fairly uncommon names except for Lance, but Nedry was a family name. Unfortunately, either the name made the man or the man was pre-appointed to the name, but Nedry ended up being a bit uncommon and odd. Nedry was very obedient and intelligent, he was downright pious really, and precocious. He loved to talk to Ty about his work. He loved to learn. He worked hard at his chores, he worked hard at school. He had defaulted to taking the first-born role in the family due to an absence of volunteers for that mantle from his older brothers. Lance was really good at everything. He was a jack of all trades with a distinguishing sense of what qualified as a trade worthy for his interests. Not really trades though, mostly hobbies. he was competitive at bicycling, eating without consequences, using Oxford Commas, and making fun of people. He had a real knack for cruelty. Not physical cruelty, it would barely amount to verbal abuse. Well, sometimes it would amount.