Photo by Cameron M. Bray ’16 – Mr. Welty teaches Forrest Wiegand ’15 about angular momentum, March 18. Mr. Welty teaches Honors and AP Physics classes.

By Cameron M. Bray ’16
THE ROUNDUP

Now in his 27th year at Brophy, Mr. Mike Welty ’83 teaches Honors Physics classes and one period of AP Physics C.

However, these are not the only courses he has taught over the years.

“I’ve taught all the courses that we teach in the math department and all the courses that we teach in the science department,” Mr. Welty said.

Of all these classes, he said physics has been his favorite subject to teach.

A fan of science since his Brophy years, Mr. Welty earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Loyola Marymount University, where he originally studied engineering, not physics.

He said he got into physics “indirectly.”

“When I was an undergraduate in college, I studied engineering,” Mr. Welty said. “But I took a year of engineering intro courses, and the thing I was most interested in … was the fundamental truths of why the relationships worked the way they did. And what I found out … was that engineers don’t care about that. So, what I found was, I wasn’t really interested in engineering; I was interested in pure science.”

According to his students, Mr. Welty’s mastery of physics and his passion for the subject are visible.

“I honestly think he’s one of the smartest people at Brophy,” said Alberto Cardona ’16, an Honors Physics student.  “He seems to know a lot about physics and has a passion for it, which I highly respect”

Daniel Bonner ’17, another student in Honors Physics, said he enjoys Mr. Welty’s class.

“I recommend the class to those thinking to take a physics course,” he said. “It’s a great class.”

Bonner said that he likes Mr. Welty as a person, too.

“He’s a great guy, a great teacher,” he said. “He’s one of my favorite teachers at Brophy.”

Besides science, Mr. Welty also enjoys theater.

As a student he said he was a “theater guy.”

“I did theater for all four years,” Mr. Welty said. “I did every show that there was and a number of community theater shows. I was big into doing musicals. Singing and dancing were my fortes.”

In fact, he performed in numerous recognizable works.

“We did ‘My Fair Lady’ when I was here,” he said. “We did ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’  That was the big musical my freshman year. Junior year we did ‘Carnival.’”

On campus, Mr. Welty also serves as an assistant coach for Speech and Debate and as the moderator for the Brophy Rocketry Club, headed by Cameron Kurtz ’15.

Off campus, Mr. Welty enjoys reading and playing video games and board games.

He enjoys spy fiction, historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and he said his favorite game is probably “World of Warcraft.”

In addition, Mr. Welty occasionally plays board games with Mr. Bill Woods and Mr. Doug Cox.

“Settlers of Catan’ was the first one we really got into, so we played that a bunch,” Mr. Cox said. “We played ‘Euchre’ and games like that.”

Mr. Cox said that Mr. Welty is both a smart teacher and a great friend.

“He’s awesome, just a great guy, and I’m happy to be friends with him,” Mr. Cox said. “He’s just such a great person and a remarkable man.”