Gary Knepler of Trumbull Trained 'Tens of Thousands' of CT Drivers

Gary Knepler says he has taught tens of thousands of people to drive an automobile.

"We've done tens of thousands, without exaggeration," he said when interviewed recently from Florida, where he spends part of the year.

Residents of Stratford will know him for his long association with the public schools, teaching driver's education at Stratford High School.

"I've been providing driver's ed for the Stratford Board of Education since 1973," he said.

The Gary Knepler Driving School also runs driver's education training at the Sterling House Community Center in Stratford, at Chalk Hill Middle School for the Monroe Board of Education, and from its principle office at 388 Main St., Monroe.

He also runs driver's education programs at three locations in Florida, where he spends the winters since retiring from the Bridgeport Public Schools. He lives in Trumbull when he's in Connecticut.

Knepler's 'Greatest Contribution'

Knepler said he originally wasn't supposed to become a driver's ed teacher. In fact, in 1973 he was already a special education teacher for the Bridgeport school system, and he went on to have a 33-year career there, teaching at just about every public school in the city. Knepler said he thought he would eventually become a school administrator.

The driving school was started by his father in 1956. His brother, Howard, was supposed to take over the school, but he died in 1973 in a drunken driving accident. That left the business in his hands.

One day while teaching driver's ed at Bassick High in Bridgeport, where he also taught special ed, "A light went on. Why not combine special education and driver's education?"

Knepler said that might have been his greatest contribution. Since then he has been invited to Russia, Hungary, China, Israel, Great Britain and Argentina to meet with government officials as a consultant on teaching driver's education to special needs students.

Tough Love Behind the Wheel

He said students take his driver's education classes on his terms. "If you don't want to do it on my terms, guess what? There are other driving schools."

For Knepler, driver's ed is a serious subject. "It determines your quality of life. Make one mistake behind the wheel and it can change your life," he said.

That is why his students must study and pass tests before they receive their driver's education certificates.

Recently, a student's mother gave him a bad review in a Patch commentary. After they talked on the telephone and she understood why her daughter had complained, the mother .

Knepler is also a leader on driver's education in Connecticut and nationally, especially on driver's education for persons with disabililties.

He said he is on the executive board for the New England Traffic Safety Education Administration, president of the Connecticut Driver Safety Education Association, and a member of the Driving School Association of the Americas and the National Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists.

But in the interview, he said he considers the comment by his student's mother to be one of his greatest honors.