To students at St. Francis High School in California, math teacher Jim O’Connor was not someone that they would have quickly associated with the word love. He was a retired Vietnam war veteran and handled his classroom with a stern hand. His short, military style haircut and demeanor were nothing but sheer business. The 32 young men he taught in his classroom respected him, but had no idea what their teacher was like outside of the classroom, until one day when one of the students discovered that his math teacher had a compassionate and gentle side to him.

One of the senior students had went to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to work on a project for school and was stunned when people all over the hospital talked about what a wonderful man his math teacher was. The student thought maybe they were talking about someone different than the stern man that took the fun out of school.

The student found out that they were indeed talking about his math teacher. Mr. O’Connor wasn’t known as the stern math teacher inside the walls of the children’s hospital. Instead, he was known as the top blood donor and a baby whisperer.

O’Connor doesn’t have a family of his own, and has never had children, but he had been a regular blood donor at the children’s hospital for years when he discovered a unique opportunity. He has donated 72 gallons of blood so far, and during his donations asked how he could help with the sick children that he saw while he was there.

As it turns out, O’Connor became a TLC volunteer. Three days a week, he goes to the hospital where he feeds, changes, and cuddles the babies and children who are sick and whose parents can’t be there with them. He says he just couldn’t stand to have those babies there alone.

When told that he wasn’t such a tough guy after all, O’Connor admitted that he’s not, but said the kids in his classroom can’t ever find that out. However, the discovery that their teacher was so charitable with his blood donations along with spending his free time with sick children, made the students see O’Connor in a completely different light.

Instead of being intimidated by their teacher, the boys in his classroom say they now respect him more than ever. They admire him and hope to be like him someday. They believe O’Connor is a perfect example of what a man of service should be like.