Joe Parise had hoped to be on the Space Shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after takeoff  on Jan. 28, 1986, exactly 40 years ago today.

In the four decades since that tragic day, he has felt a wide range of emotions … with one notable exception.

The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after it left the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida. And from that day until now, the former Troy High School physics teacher has felt shock that it happened, grief for the seven astronauts whose lives were lost that day and empathy for the families of the lost astronauts.

One thing Parise, who taught at Troy High School in the 1980s and 1990s and was one of the 100 finalists out of 11,000 applicants to NASA’s “Teacher in Space” program, has never felt, however, is relief.

“Oh no, not at all. I’ve never felt relief.” Parise said in a telephone interview. “You know going into something like that what the risks are. You know going in what successes there could be, but you also know the worst that could happen. It’s not something you sign up for if you are a ‘fraidy cat.’ You have to go into it with open arms and embrace the challenge. So no, I’ve never felt relief. I knew what could happen from the moment I signed up.”

Parise remembers a huge groundswell of support from Troy High School students and staff members once he applied to be a part of the Teacher in Space program. In addition to petitions and letters of recommendation that were signed and filled out by both groups, there were a number of “Put Joe in Space” buttons and t-shirts seen in the halls of Troy High School between the time he announced his intent in 1984 and the actual shuttle mission in 1986.

“It was great,” said Parise, who currently is a science teacher at DePaul Christo Rey High School in Cincinnati. “The kids really got behind me. There were a number of petitions and letters of recommendation that were  part of the process. Of course, I was also also a bit of a ham, so I would always say things like, ‘It sure would be great to be up there in space.’ And they kids would say things like, “Oh yeah, Mr. Parise! You’ve got to go up there.”

Ultimately, NASA selected Christa McAuliffe from Concord High School in New Hampshire to join experienced astronauts Francis “Dick” Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnick, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka and Gregory Jarvis on the mission.

The fact that a teacher would be on a space shuttle mission for the first time led to tens of thousands of students across the country sitting in their classrooms and watching from takeoff until the tragic ending. For most, it is a childhood memory that has been permanently seared into their consciousness.

“I think of that day a lot, it’s always in the back of my mind, especially every year when I see or hear the news reports about the anniversary,” Parise said. “I remember I was taking my class down to the little amphitheater (then known as B-8, now where Irene Imboden teaches English and drama classes) to watch. As I was taking my class into the room, (former THS Assistant Principal) Mike Bennett grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘You aren’t going to believe this.’ That’s how I found out what had happened.”

Parise said he felt remorse not only for his fellow teacher McAuliffe, but for all of the astronauts. Parise had always felt a certain kinship with the space program, as his cousin Ron Parise was an astronaut who had been to space on two previous shuttle missions, and was scheduled to go to space on the next mission scheduled for after the Challenger mission.

“You have to remember back then how hard it was to get information, because there was no internet,” Parise said. “I would spend the next few days trying to get as much information as I could. In addition to Christa, there were six other young people taken along with her.”

Parise, who also served as a part-time meteorologist for WHIO Channel 7 in Dayton, would leave Troy in the 1990s to take a teaching position at Worthington Kilbourne High School, near Columbus. He would then follow that up with a teaching position at Saint Xavier High School. Now at DePaul Christo Rey High School, Parise is in his 49th year of teaching.

“I’m still stamping out ignorance every chance I get,” he said with a laugh.

Although his time at Troy was a small part of a board teaching career, he said he has fond memories of his time as a Trojan.

“The kids there were fabulous,” he said. "I enjoyed my time at Troy."