“Life is what happens while you’re busy making\ other plans,” wrote John Lennon in the song Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy). Just ask instructor Ed Gallup, the founder of City College’s popular motorcycle mechanic program.

Shortly before the spring 2007 finals, Gallup was temporarily derailed by a catastrophic motorcycle accident. One moment he and fellow motorcyclists were
riding along a country road near his home outside of Plymouth, when he leaned into a turn he just didn’t quite make.

“I think, frankly, my attention got diverted by a deer or a quail or something like that,” says Gallup.

He doesn’t accurately remember the accident itself.

“I had this image in my mind—this sounds otherworldly— of watching myself,” says Gallup. “I’m on the inside of the curve watching my bike and me wreck into this cloud of red carbon-fiber faring pieces. And of course that didn’t happen, I just ran into the dirt.”

Despite the protection of a helmet and heavy leather jacket, Gallup’s spine was so wrenched that below mid-torso, he was paralyzed. But despite weeks in an induced coma in intensive care, and two summers flat on his back in nursing homes, Gallup is not one to take an inconvenience like this lying down.

City College aeronautics instructor Phil Cypret, a friend of Gallup’s for almost 20 years, got the call just after the accident, and headed right over to the UC Davis emergency room. Cypret could see that although his friend was very badly hurt, Gallup had other things on his mind.

“From the first time I visited him in the hospital, his only goal was to get out of the hospital as soon as he could and return to work at Sacramento City College,” says Cypret. “Ed truly loves the students, he truly loves teaching, and he’s always been fascinated by motorcycles, by mechanics and machinery. So it’s a perfect fit for Ed, getting to actually teach something that he absolutely loves to teach.”

“He hasn’t missed a beat,” said Annette Barfield, a counselor in the counseling center, and one of Gallup’s many friends on campus. “He has the most upbeat, positive attitude about life. We can all learn from him.”

When Gallup was an English major at UC Berkeley, before the motorcycle maintenance programs existed, he put himself through school as a motorcycle mechanic on evenings and weekends. So teaching students a set of skills that reliably leads to well-paying jobs is partly a way to give back, says Gallup. And even better when it’s your dream job.

Gallup created this job himself, since he developed the whole program in his spare time, after Cypret suggested the idea. Then he called up the Sacramento Bee which resulted in a Metro section cover story. The following semester, 105 students showed up for the introductory course. Fortunately for them, he makes a point of never turning beginners away.

“I have so many good things in my life,” Gallup says, referring to all the friends who helped out in the aftermath of the accident, and all the adjustments, modern technology, and unwavering staff support that have enabled him to keep doing his dream job.

“You walk around the campus, and you just think, ‘I’m part of this,’” Gallup says. “To participate in that is marvelous."