"Peter was a great teacher and friend of the student!" said Mario Hernandez, former Palo Alto College student and UTSA graduate.

Priscilla Flores, former Palo Alto student and now a senior IDS major at UTSA, said, "My last semester at Palo Alto, I wanted to purchase a thank you gift for Mr. Myers for being a mentor and a friend."

Myers, a History professor here at Palo Alto, is a teacher who touches the lives of his students. He challenges them to learn more and be better than they think they can be.

"His teaching is unique," said Flores. "Unlike many teachers, he gave his students a chance to expand their creativity."

Not only does he challenge his students, but he also allows them to become thinkers.

"Peter was one of the best instructors at PAC, because he always allowed for a deviation in the interpretation of history," said Hernandez. "He liked to get all the students involved in the studies."

Rarely does Myers pick up a book or notes during his lecture. He knows history and does his best to take what he knows to give to his students.

"It takes someone who really loves history to gain as much knowledge as he has," said Deborah S. Wilkerson, an Education major in her first semester at Palo Alto. "He knows dates, names and events that exceed the norm of teaching history."

He also isn't afraid to tackle the tough issues in history --- the blemishes that we might like to forget.

"It is refreshing to have a teacher who gives the good and the bad. You get both sides of the story," said Antonio Ramos, a second year History major. "He seems really well rounded."

Myers is the kind of teacher who draws his students to him, whether it be staying after class for a little more conversation or being available in his office to say hello or give some advice.

Hernandez added, "I always found it easy to walk in to his office and ask him for advice. I like his advice because he was willing to listen and express his opinions based on his past experience."

Myers takes more than just a passing interest in his students. Not only does he teach them, but he also encourages them and cares about their future.

Praise for Myers does not only come from students.

History has been a part of Myers' life since he was young.

"There were always history books, history television shows, newspapers," said Myers. "My grandfather told me stories about the Great Depression; my father about growing up in the World War II era."

Armed with strong roots in history, Myers entered Muhlenberg College in Eastern Pennsylvania. Originally a Pre-Theology major, Myers graduated with a degree in History, just as his father had in the 1950s.

After taking a year off from school to work for a national fraternity, Myers went to graduate school at New York University where he earned his master's degree in American History. He focused on social history, which he describes as "basically a bottom up history, which is my basic way of researching and teaching today. [It] is looking at people's everyday lives, and students looking at their grandparents and how it [all] relates to the history of the era that we're studying."

Myers has also had an impact on his fellow colleagues as well as his students.

"We feed off each other's ideas," said Robert Hines, History professor at Palo Alto. "[Over the years] he's changed the way I've taught, and I've changed the way he's taught. We've grown and changed together professionally."

It was while in the Peace Corps that Myers met Hines. They met in San Francisco and were both sent to Papua, New Guinea, a large island north of Australia. They rarely saw one another while there, but they managed to keep in touch after leaving the Peace Corps. It was Myers who told Hines about an opening here at Palo Alto in the late 1980s, and they are still together today.

After leaving the Peace Corps, Myers found his way to San Antonio, where he met his wife, Marguerite, and worked as a permanent substitute teacher at Holmes High School. Myers and his wife now have three children, two boys and one girl, who range from kindergarten to the fourth grade.

"I would like for students to have a life long liking, not necessarily a love, of history, but a liking of history from an approach of how they see themselves in that history," said Myers, who will teach six sessions of History of the U.S. in the Spring.