- November 22, 2024
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Ken Rucker, Flagler Technical College's Teacher of the Year and the school's heavy equipment construction instructor, can fix just about anything with wheels, CDL instructor Tom Worthington wrote in a letter of recommendation for Rucker's Teacher of the Year application.
"Ken is innovative and a problem solver. He does whatever it takes to keep his program running efficiently."
— RENEE KIRKLAND, FTC director
"Just the other day, I had to call him and tell him we had a bad air leak, and that the brakes were on fire," Worthington wrote. "Ken came to our rescue right away," saving the school hundreds of dollars.
And Rucker is inspired to teach those skills with heavy equipment to his students.
"I enjoy seeing their faces light up and the satisfaction they feel when they realize that they have obtained the ability to run a piece of equipment such as a backhoe, front end loader or excavator," Rucker wrote in his Teacher of the Year application. "The same with driving a semitruck as they learn to shift the gears without stalling or grinding the gears, or to back up safely. I also receive a sense of pride when I see them offered employment using the skills that they have learned through my instruction."
Rucker, born in Palatka, has worked in construction, fixed paper mill equipment and driven semitrucks around the country.
He came to Palm Coast after marrying his wife, a St. Augustine school teacher, and worked as a mechanic for private businesses, and for a stint at the St. Johns County School District's transportation department, before becoming heavy equipment construction instructor at FTC in 2020.
"Ken is innovative and a problem solver," FTC Director Renee Kirkland wrote in a letter of recommendation for Rucker's Teacher of the Year application. "He does whatever it takes to keep his program running efficiently."
"He has taken a fledgling [Heavy Equipment Operations Technician] program and transformed it into a flagship program at Flagler Technical College."
— BRUCE WINTERS, FTC Commercial Vehicle Driving Program facilitator
Rucker worked out an agreement with the city of Palm Coast to train city staff members on heavy equipment, Kirkland wrote, and volunteers for FTC and for the Florida Agricultural Museum, which houses FTC's heavy equipment program lab, in his spare time.
Over the past several years, Rucker and his students have built a drainage system, horse pastures and roads for the museum, and added places for wildflowers and gopher tortoises, Rucker wrote.
"Currently, we have been spreading dirt from the swales brought in from the city of Palm Coast," he wrote. "The dirt is being used to fill in a low area that will be used for future museum development, thus helping out both the city and the museum."
Rucker also has an advisory committee that meets twice annually, Kirkland wrote. Its members, local business stakeholders who hire FTC grads, advise Rucker on textbooks and curricula, she wrote.
Rucker works well with both adult students and with high school students taking dual enrollment classes at FTC, wrote Bruce Winters, FTC's Commercial Vehicle Driving Program facilitator.
"He has taken a fledgling [Heavy Equipment Operations Technician] program and transformed it into a flagship program at Flagler Technical College," Winters,wrote. "... He handles both adult and dual enrollment students with energy and skill, inspiring personal growth and success in every one of them."
