By Will Stark
Leonardo da Vinci was known for excelling in many different fields, including engineering, art, and writing. Nearly 600 years later, Mr. Belling is East’s very own renaissance man, having worked as an aerospace engineer, spent fifteen years in Hollywood, and now as a teacher instructing students on advanced physics.
Being a teacher wasn’t a career Mr. Belling was considering growing up. No, “I wanted to do film” he said. As a child in Buffalo, Mr. Belling would audio and film, helping foster a passion for the recorded arts.
Physics, on the other hand, wasn’t on the table. “When I graduated high school,” he said, “I told myself I would never take another math or science class.” Mr. Belling wanted to study film, but to be a film major in those days, “the only places to go were USC or NYU.” Due to financial constraints, it was out of the question. Instead, he attended Buffalo State University as a communications major focused in TV and broadcasting. “It was the next best thing,” he said.
The switch to engineering came one day when students were assigned to calculating the power usage of a broadcast station. Mr. Belling recalls having classmates struggling to do long division, and realized that this wasn’t the education he wanted. As a result, he says, “I switched to engineering because it was a solid degree” and that “you can do a lot of things with it.”
As an engineering student, Mr. Belling landed a scholarship with Hughes Aircraft. After getting both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in engineering, he began working at this aircraft company. Instead of the ideal post-college job, Mr. Belling found it quite miserable. “I was so bored,” he explained, and was gone after only a year of work.
After a short tenure as an engineer, Mr. Belling got a job out West and moved to Los Angeles. He figured that being so close to Hollywood could mean opportunities to work in film. After moving, Mr. Belling started a production company with his friend, where he worked first as a gofer, an assistant to the directors and actors on a production. He remembers his years in Hollywood fondly, especially one instance in which he accidentally covered a director’s plate of food in fire extinguisher foam. “He wouldn’t look at me after that,” Mr. Belling said with a hint of pride in his voice.
After thirteen years in the movie industry, Mr. Belling and his wife decided to return to Buffalo. “I needed work,” said Mr. Belling, “and no one was going to hire an engineer who hadn’t worked in thirteen years.” So, he decided to try his hand at teaching, preferably math or physics.
Mr. Belling’s teaching style is as distinct as his signature man-bun. “What I try to do is break down a problem to its fundamentals, and explain it in the way that makes sense to me,” he explains. Indeed, on any given day in either an AP Physics C or Physics A class, students solve problems on whiteboards, deriving Newton’s laws and energy equations to solve the problem. He requires that all steps are shown, and can often be heard reminding students to “State the physics.” The reason for this, he replies, is that “in physics, you gotta take more things into account. It’s less focused. There’s no one way to do it. Here’s a small set of rules, now apply it to a vast, vast number of scenarios. You have to be comfortable going into a problem that looks unfamiliar but the same rules apply.”
Outside of school, Mr. Belling enjoys exercising, especially calisthenics and animal flow. He also loves to hike and go camping, his favorite place being the redwood forests in Northern California. When not exercising or hiking with his family, Mr. Belling loves listening to music. A self acclaimed audiophile, Mr. Belling enjoys listening to all kinds of music, excluding pop and modern country. “I like music that’s authentic,” he said.
Mr. Belling’s favorite part of teaching is having summers off, where he can pursue his interests outside of school. His least favorite part, on the other hand, is grading. “It’s soul crushing. It reveals what a failure I am. I spend a lot of time screaming when I’m grading labs.”
A recognizable, original character at East, Mr. Belling’s impact on his students is deep and long lasting. “If you get a chance to take a physics class from him, do it,” urges East Alum Mark Campise, “It’s unlike any class you’ll take in college.” If physics is an area of interest, or a subject you’d be interested in learning more about, don’t hesitate to sign up! Mr. Belling has your back.