Brad Marcy ’09, M.S. ’17, may have been born to be a teacher, but first he had to be a soldier. The notion that he could teach came to him while serving in Iraq.
From the ages of 19-25, Marcy served in the U.S. Army as part of the 233rd Military Police Company in the Third Infantry Division. He spent six years on active duty and was deployed to Iraq as part of the initial invasion of the Iraq War in 2003. He lived in Baghdad until late spring 2004 for a total of 15 months.
“We were some of the first in the city and stayed longer than most of those who came in after us,” Marcy said.
A big influence on him was his squad leader, also from Central Illinois, Staff Sgt. Jermey Mayes.
“He used to say, ‘When we’re not at war, we’re training,’” Marcy said. “I was an introvert, and he told me I was going to teach, so I taught a lot of classes to soldiers, which made me think, ‘I can do this.’”
It turns out that his old staff sergeant was an astute judge of character. In April 2024, Marcy was named Teacher of the Year by the College of Education, which annually recognizes outstanding teaching among all teacher education graduates of Illinois State. Not bad for a guy who said he could’ve been a better student in high school.
So, it makes perfect sense that he has a special feeling for those who served as he did. A history and social science teacher and department chair at Le Roy High School, where he’s taught for 13 years, Marcy takes every opportunity to engage his students in experiential learning. If that learning involves lessons about sacrifices made by veterans, then all the better.
“We want to tell these veterans’ stories and make sure they’re memorialized and remembered properly.”
Brad Marcy
In his role as a history teacher, he creates immersive lessons where his students create battle shields and catapults, plan and host a WWII-era themed hangar dance, and clean the headstones of U.S. military veterans.
That last one started about seven or eight years ago when Marcy noticed there were headstones of veterans in the local cemetery that needed some attention. He started the Good Cemeterian project, which enlists the help of students in his American History class, who are all juniors. They are charged with choosing a headstone and cleaning it up.
They use D3 cleaner, which is recommended as an antibiological agent that won’t hurt the surface where it’s applied. It kills moss and lichen and continues to clean for months afterward. In addition to the cleaning aspect, there are several more layers to the project.
“We want to tell these veterans’ stories and make sure they’re memorialized and remembered properly,” Marcy said.
That’s where Marcy and his students use Ancestry.com and two of its products: Fold3 (to research military records of the deceased) and Newspapers.com.
“Students take down info off their adopted headstone and use Fold3 to research each individual,” Marcy said. “They then put together a bio packet using graphic design, which helps them build skill sets. And they use Ancestry.com to find the nearest living relative and send them a packet describing the project.”
Marcy said that creativity is his strength sometimes, and he tries to come up with activities that he would like to do.
“I’m just a big kid, and being a kid at heart makes you a good teacher,” he said.
It also helps that he knows his audience very well.
“Of course, every generation is different,” Marcy said. “I felt like I needed to study this current generation before I tried to teach them. They’re digital natives, and they respond and demand immediate feedback because that’s what they’re inundated with from technology. You have to meet them where they’re at, and get them outside of their comfort zone if you want to impact them.
“I like to get them moving because just talking to them old school doesn’t do it.”
A Springfield native, Marcy, now 43, said his interest in the military started at home. He had two older siblings he described as overachieving, so he chose another way.
“I wanted to do something cool and blaze my own path,” he said. “Plus, my dad was an Army Ranger in Vietnam, and I was inspired by his service.”
Once he returned to civilian life, Marcy did follow the same academic route of his brother, Steven “Troy” ’99, and his wife, Julie ’99, who both enjoyed being students at Illinois State.
“I got home from the war and started my new life adventure,” Marcy said.
Included in that adventure was meeting his wife, Ashlie Morfey Marcy ’09. They are parents to two girls: Kennedy, 11, and Carsen, 8. Ashlie is a librarian and history teacher in the Le Roy schools.
“We even had an ISU-themed wedding at Ewing Manor that was catered by ISU Catering,” Marcy said. “We did our first dance—The Chicken Dance—with Reggie Redbird.”
He began his academic career wanting to be a physical education teacher, but his experiences overseas in a place that’s credited as the birthplace of civilization made him rethink his plan.
“Here I was in this super historic place in the heart of Mesopotamia with the Tigris River right out my back door, and near the ruins of Babylon,” he said. “And I wondered, ‘How is my story going to be told?’ I wanted to be part of telling that story.”
Marcy described his students as driven but not strictly by their grade in a class.
“They aren’t moved or inspired by grades alone,” he said. “They are more motivated by the impact they can have. When they know that real people are counting on them, they come through for you. They will move heaven and Earth to not let you down because you trusted them.
“It’s not always easy to move them to care, but it’s inspiring for me. It fills my cup.”
