Brian Thompson

Professor

“Our department is like a family and the cameraderie is great.”

When Brian Thompson isn’t smoothing over the hundreds of dings and dents that result from L.A. traffic, he’s teaching that same skill at SMC. “Los Angeles is a great place to do auto body,” he says. “There’s always a steady supply of fender benders, so there’ll always be work.”

Brian began teaching while he was still a student in his department. “My instructor asked me if I would be interested in helping him with the class. He said that I seemed to just have the knack for passing along what I know.” And so he began to pursue teaching.

“I’m working now towards my bachelor’s in vocational education,” says Brian. “I want to be able to move into full-time teaching in the years to come.” Teaching has become something that he enjoys greatly. “I really like meeting all the new people,” he says. “I used to be a little bit shy about it. But now I just feel good about giving people a set of skills that they can take with them the rest of their lives.”

Brian says that his craft is a challenging one. “Usually people that do auto body have a little artistic background,” he explains and adds that, “it’s a painstaking trade. It takes two or three years, during which time you’re fighting yourself. But then,” he says, “like most things in life, it begins to smooth out.”

Brian often spends his weekends scuba diving around Catalina Island. “I’ve seen a lot of great lobsters out there. But I tend not to grab them,” he explains with a laugh. “It seems that the eels like lobsters too.”

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