“You will never meet someone like me!” says Mr. Goettler. While only being at Methacton for a year, Mr. Goettler has quickly become one of the students’ favorite teachers. When it comes to teaching chemistry and physics, Mr. Goettler says “I know what I’m talking about!” Although he is a new teacher, Mr. Goettler wants Methacton to know that he is a one-of-a-kind teacher with big ideas and an interesting past!

Through his undergraduate education at Butler University and North Carolina State for graduate school, Mr. Goettler has worn many hats. He originally majored in biology and pre-med until he switched to inorganic chemistry, realizing that “Chemistry is for me, it’s what I’m good at.” He was in the University’s most popular frat while also playing football! Not only was he a sporty student, but he also did some humanitarian work in Orlando. He volunteered to spend his whole spring break there to help with Hurricane Andrew relief. 

His busy and exciting college life earned him a degree in chemistry which he used to his advantage. I guess you could say that his post college life started off with a BANG! Mr. Goettler then spent 10 years developing explosives, and explosive detection devices for Homeland Security. Some of his research and development test kits were used by the government, and he later got patents for explosive test kits that he and his team designed. 

He mentioned that his favorite bit of research he did as a developmental chemist was his simulant explosives. Simulant explosives are a large-scale production that are used to test explosives for potential government use. These developments had many people blown away and earned Mr. Goettler a job as a FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) representative that worked with the Department of Parks and Recreation for TSA. During this time he got to travel to places like San Diego and Orlando for numerous conventions. While he cared a great deal about his government work, he felt as thought he was meant for something else. That is how he started his career as a teacher, where he would be able to share his knowledge.

Before coming to Methacton, Mr. Goettler used his abilities to teach at Coatesville for the last two years. He ultimately came to Methacton because “This is my permanent place where I can be involved in many things I enjoy.” He couldn’t be more right! Mr. Goettler has gotten involved in many things here at Methacton: becoming an offensive coach for our Warrior football team, volunteering at post prom, working with Methacton’s BSU club and with still more to come. Mr. Goettler said that he would love to start a D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) club/ board game club, and is always looking to help out other clubs.

All in all Mr. Goettler was right, we will never meet someone like him. So now that you know more about one of Methacton’s new teachers, don’t be afraid to say hi in the halls. After all, Mr. Goettler says that Methacton is his permanent home, so welcome him in!