Early in the morning of Feb. 24, as he was driving to the school, Electrical Maintenance Engineer Stefen Glenn spotted a wreck on the road. The truck was upside down. There was a fire where the motor should be, and none of the doors were open. He pulled over.
“I saw all of this debris and started to weave through it,” Glenn said. “I noticed his truck and that there was a fire under where the motor would be. I looked at this truck that’s upside down and has fire on it, with no doors open and I felt something wasn’t right.”
Glenn got out of his truck and ran up to the scene. After getting vague answers from fellow bystanders about the conditions of the driver and briefly considering calling 911, he ultimately decided to take the risk and inspect the wrecked vehicle for any survivors.
“I ran up to the truck, grabbed the back door handle, and jerked with all my body weight. It popped open, and the guy was in there,” Glenn said. “He was laying on what would be the roof, and I told him ‘We have to get you out of here.’ I started pulling him, but then he screamed about his leg.”
The victim had broken both of his feet in the accident, which made the attempt to pry him out of the vehicle much more difficult. With more smoke blowing in and the fire on the roof spreading to more of the car, Glenn was eventually able to pry the man’s injured legs out of the wreckage before calling on help from bystanders to make the final pull to safety.
No more than 90 seconds after the rescue effort, the truck exploded.
“We had dragged him across three lanes of traffic, and had him on the shoulder, and then there was a big pop,” Glenn said. “I said we needed to move him farther because I thought it was going to explode, and at that time, the whole thing went up in flames.”
This kind of instinct wasn’t simply developed on the spot, however. Glenn grew up in Dallas, and he split his time between the city and his grandparents’ land in McKinney. Glenn believes that his real growth and development happened out there—where he made most of his friends and learned the most about himself as he matured.
“My granddad had a house and a lot of land,” Glenn said. “I grew up with him teaching me stuff. I remember we had this huge garden the size of the football field, and I grew up helping him take care of that. I would pick pecans off the ground and from the pecan trees. It was a farm life.”
After middle school, Glenn attended Lake Highlands High School for a year and a half before making a permanent move to McKinney with his grandparents, leaving his love of football behind. In its place, a new obsession took root: cars.
“I got tired of football and got more interested in cars,” Glenn said. “When I moved to McKinney I started getting involved in auto mechanics, messing around with cars. My first job was working an oil change, and I did that all throughout high school.”
Despite finishing high school, Glenn did not immediately attend college. He had been offered a job out of state, but he turned it down because it would mean moving away from his grandparents. However, he would soon find his path into electrical school and receive his license in 1999.
“I’ve done ground up construction work, new construction, remodeling, residential and ran bucket trucks, but as far as getting to St. Mark’s, I was running a service van for a company and the school was one of our clients,” Glenn said. “I started working here a bunch, and my boss liked me, so this place became my customer. One day they came to me, wanting me here full time. I knew here, I could grow and do more.”
Throughout his 14 years at the school, Glenn has been able to connect with the student base on a personal level, forming connections with many students.
“I’ve always said that we get to watch them grow up,” Glenn said. “It’s cool getting to know them, and getting to see them when they’re (little) to then being on the stage at graduation as seniors. That’s what’s fun about being part of the St. Mark’s community, getting to know some of you all.”
