Where in the world is Vince Lynch?

In the days following the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history in 2001, Longfellow Middle School principal Vince Lynch did what he always did best: He led a school cafeteria full of parents attending back to school night in the Pledge of Allegiance and told them that there would be no discrimination, no taunting, no targeting against students from the Middle East.

It’s just one of the many memories parents and students have of Mr. Lynch, who was on the faculty for 22 years and principal for seven.

“Vince knew when to get involved, and how to fix a problem,” said Louise Epstein, a parent who worked with him for four years as a Longfellow PTA officer. “He understood that when things aren't broken, they don't need to be changed, so he supported the excellent teachers who did things differently than the rest of the schools in Fairfax County.”

Now retired, Lynch looks back at his years at Longfellow – as the assistant principal from 1986-2001 and the principal for seven years before he retired in 2008 and remembers a great school with terrific kids and a wonderful staff.

“I stayed at Longfellow for so long because I loved it there. To me, it was home,” said Lynch, 61, who retired for health reasons.

A history buff, Lynch decided to retire on April 18, 2008, the date of Paul Revere’s ride during the Revolutionary War that was memorialized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem.

 After spending the first year in retirement touring historical places of interest in Virginia, Lynch left for his next great adventure – moving to Thailand in 2009, a country he had visited many times over the years and where he always wanted to settle.

But politics wouldn’t cooperate. After he was living in Thailand for a year, political riots erupted May 19, 2010, making it impossible for him to stay there.

“My intention was to stay there. I was very well settled,” Lynch said. “In America, you could have a riot situation like in Los Angeles, but it doesn’t mean the whole country goes into anarchy.”

In Thailand, he said it was “really scary. Nobody was really in charge.”

 “It showed me what total anarchy in a country can be like...and that's not what I hoped for in a retirement community,” Lynch said.

So he moved once again in June 2010, this time back to the United States, settling in his favorite western state – Colorado and setting down stakes in Colorado Springs.

While he spends his days traveling locally and enjoying the fresh mountain air, Lynch is still in touch with teachers and administrators at Longfellow who regularly update him about the school’s evolving facility.

He’s got a few plans in mind for a visit. He’s planning on skipping the 50^th anniversary celebration this year and will return to the school once the renovation and expansion are completed.

 “Principals hate to be at a school during renovation, moving classrooms, assuring student safety,” Lynch said. “I was kind of glad I left when I retired.”

Lynch values his days at Longfellow except for that short-term connection built into the short two-year cycle of a middle school.

“You know, there was one aspect of being an educator that I didn't like.  For a year or two, you would have daily interactions with students, some of whom you got to know extremely well...and then they just totally disappear from your life.  It's an odd profession, in that regard,” he said.

For more on what Lynch is up to, check out his blog at http://www.vinlyn.com/.