You may know Andrew Spawn as a kind, lighthearted science teacher. But he used to be a tough crime fighter on the streets of Philly. During high school, Mr. Spawn volunteered with the peacekeeping group the Guardian Angels, roaming the streets to fight crime.

“At night, I went down to South Broad and put on a set of fatigues and a red Beret and patrolled the Philadelphia subways with 24 Guys, you know, standing like that in the doorway of the subway cars,” he says. “We stopped crime just by physical presence.” 

The fact that they were unarmed was important to Spawn. He’s a Quaker, who attended a long line of Quaker schools – all the way through college. He went to a small Quaker school in Indiana called Earlham.

“I went to college and focused really early on in biology,” he says. “Since high school, I’ve been really interested in biology. And [then] Earlham had a really strong ecology department.” 

So Spawn studied biology and ecology in college.

“I was a brand new graduate, 21 years old. So I kind of walked out of Earlham, went up to Minnesota for a summer [of scientific] field work, and then went right to Friends and started teaching.”

Friends School of Baltimore would be Spawn’s first and only teaching job. Thirty-seven years later, he is still teaching at Friends as a 6th grade Life Science teacher. 

When senior Nigel Lewis thinks back to Middle School, Spawn stands out to him as a teacher who earned his respect.

“I think Mr. Spawn was a good teacher,” Nigel says.

One memory in particular stands out.

“I have a not so fun story,” says Nigel. “When I was in 6th grade, I had took notes off of a peer’s homework assignment, and Mr. Spawn assumed that I had cheated on the homework. Because of this he gave me and the friend a bad grade. Since then, I never cheated in his class again.”

Nigel says he has believed ever since then that Mr. Spawn is a man who shows a lot of integrity, and is a follower of our honor code. 

But Spawn is not just a teacher – he’s also a wrestling coach.

Spawn began wrestling himself in 6th grade, and continued through college. At Friends, he has used his passion for wrestling to teach others. Many young wrestlers at Friends have been coached by him, including current senior Langdon Ottman.

“He’s a Quaker that wrestles and he’s very strong,” says Langdon admiringly.

Spawn’s strength surprised Langdon when he first wrestled him. He was even more surprised when he learned his coach was a Quaker. Langdon says Spawn is one of the reasons he still wrestles to this day – and that the veteran coach and teacher is influential in students’ lives both in and outside of the classroom.

“He’s a great wrestling teacher; very enthusiastic about his job,” Langdon says. “And he’s also a great science teacher.”

These two very different perspectives on Andrew Spawn show how he follows his Quaker values – even though he wrestles. 

“Back in my day, Mr. Spawn taught us to not use the full nelson, an extremely dangerous, illegal wrestling move that was effective in subduing an attacker,” Langdon remembers.

This technique isn’t just used on a wrestling mat, however. It can also be used to fight crime – just like Andrew Spawn once did.

Spawn says he has a lot of memories from his Guardian Angel days – but only one memory he can think of that’s appropriate for the Quaker Quill’s all-school audience. 

“The punk rock concert that they selected was a group called Black Flag, which you probably never heard of, but they were a hardcore punk band. And they were performing at Knights of Columbus Hall in South Philadelphia, a tiny little venue.” 

The Guardian Angels were not a fan favorite of the punk rockers when it came to attending the concerts for security. But they did what they needed to on the job.

This night turned out to be one of Spawn’s favorite memories from his work with the group. Being a Quaker student during the day and crime fighter at night shaped Spawn into the teacher and man he is today.