Paul Smithers was not far removed from being an impressionable teenager when he started working at Scarborough High School in the mid-1990s.
He was 24 years old and serving as a police officer for Houston Community College, which at the time held adult night classes at Scarborough. The man in charge of the Oak Forest campus was Joe McGee, who was in his 50s and worked during the day as Scarboroughâs assistant principal.
Despite their differences in age, experiences and temperament, McGee and Smithers struck up a friendship that lasted until McGee died earlier this month at age 80. They talked about school, sports and life in general, with Smithers saying McGee helped him land subsequent jobs and further a law enforcement career that now has him working as a lieutenant investigator for the Harris County District Attorneyâs Office.