Thinking about how he can improve is a daily ritual for Ron Klopfanstein. 

“I think that it’s important that I approach life each day thinking how can I personally get better and every class thinking how can these people teach me,” Klopfanstein said. 

That describes Klopfanstein and his motto for his life. While he currently indulges in a multitude of different professions such as teaching eighth grade English at John F. Kennedy Middle School, teaching Written Communication at Utica University and even recently starting a radio show and podcast called “Hot Seat: Media Monday” on 95.5 FM The Heat radio, Klopfanstein faced a number of challenges to get to this point in his career.

“I had been on TV for 10 years and I was getting my doctorate when one day it all ended,” Klopfanstein said. “I went to the hospital and I was sick with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and I didn’t work for fourteen years and I lost absolutely everything.”

Shortly but surely, Klopfanstein started to recover.

“After 10 years, very gradually I started to get better. Now when I say get better, I was at the point where I was so sick that I couldn’t even sit up without passing out because my body couldn’t get oxygen to my head and couldn’t pump blood,” Klopfanstein said. “My exercise was to be able to watch an entire scene that is usually only around a minute long while sitting upright. From that my next exercise was to walk for three minutes a day every other day around the house.”

Klopfanstein said he mentioned this because little by little he built himself up “from nothing” to all that he is now. That moment in his life taught him to live life with no regrets.

After 14 years of recovery, Klopfanstein got his first job since his illness at Utica University at age 48. Some of his students said Klopfanstein is a special professor. 

“He’s a warm welcome person. He’s always looking to help people,” Jairo Dejesus Jr. said. “He always takes time out of his day to help those who need it.”

Fellow student Athena Steele shared similar sentiments.

“He really cares about all of his students,” Steele said. “I think he makes the class a lot more fun and engaging.”

A year later at 49, Klopfanstein got his first job teaching high school and he became a columnist at 52. Now at 56, Klopfanstein has his own show and podcast.

His show focuses on local artists, entertainers, musicians, activists, digital creators and journalists talking about their process, motivation, inspiration and passion for the art that they create and for art in the area of Utica.

When asked about advice for starting a podcast, Klopfanstein said that the most important thing is that it doesn’t matter how many people listen to your first podcast or your first 10. He said you have to do 50 to 100 episodes, do a show each week to maintain a good schedule and that it takes about a year to really see the growth. 

“You pick up a few listeners as you go and it accumulates exponentially, but it takes a long time. You got to give it time,” Klopfanstein said. 

Klopfanstein said the biggest advice that he has to others is to live their life truthfully. For him, living his life truthfully came on “the hardest day of his life” in July of 1991 where he wrote a newspaper article coming out as gay.

“I wasn’t even out yet to most people that knew me. It was 1991 and people just didn’t really do that publicly,” he said. “I just remember that I wrote it and I knew it was the right thing to do, but that night waiting for the sunday paper to arrive was the scariest night of my life.”