CRESTVIEW — John A. Love II, a long-time Northwest Florida resident and one-time Alaska transplant, is Walker Elementary's new assistant principal.
Love joined the Army and moved to Northwest Florida in 1991, six years after graduating from high school in Kenai, Alaska.
After serving in Operation Desert Storm he decided to leave the military and began going to college— mostly because his mother kept pushing him to get his degree— at Okaloosa-Walton Community College. He transferred to the University of West Florida after receiving his associate degree.
Love received his bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from University of West Florida in 1997 and received his master’s degree, also from UWF — and also at his mother’s behest — in 2012.
His first teaching position was with Blended School in 2003, and he was the lead teacher at the Gulf Breeze Zoo location and also taught at the Gulfarium on Okaloosa Island.
In 2004, he taught intensive reading at Bruner Middle School and moved to Pryor Middle School, also teaching intensive reading, from 2005 – 2008.
Love taught dropout prevention at Emerald Coast Career Institute from 2008 – 2010. When ECCI closed, he stayed at the CHOICE campus and taught dropout prevention at Best Chance from 2010 – 2013.
In 2014, he taught reading and Algebra 1 for CHOICE High School but moved to Walker Elementary in December of 2014 to be the dean of students.
Love's oldest two children, Abram and Rachael, live in Virginia; his youngest, Lauren, was a freshman at Choctaw High School for the 2014-2015 school year.
His parents, Abram and Carol Ann Love, live in Fort Walton Beach, along with his sister, Brandy Laws, and her husband Will.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Love named assistant principal at Crestview elementary school