Michael Roberts is proof that it’s never too late to say thank-you to a teacher who changes your life.

More than 40 years after the fact, Roberts, now headmaster at Topeka Collegiate School, made that telephone call.

He told students Tuesday at Bishop Seabury Academy’s convocation that he called his teacher, Miss Lawrence, to express gratitude for convincing a talkative first-grader in 1958 that he could, if he worked hard, do anything in life.

“Thank you for believing in me,” Roberts recalled telling Miss Lawrence on the phone. “It has made a real difference in my life.”

Miss Lawrence confided that Roberts’ call was the kind all teachers long to receive from former students.

Roberts, who has led the independent, private Topeka school since 1988, urged Seabury’s junior high and high school students to cherish educators that have changed or will change their lives.

“They most likely had an interest in you – you personally,” he said.

More than 100 of the school’s students and about 50 guests gathered in the former Kaw Valley elementary school building east of Lawrence for remarks by Roberts and Seabury’s headmaster Chris Carter.

Carter said this year’s graduating class would have 11 students, up from one last year.

In addition, he said, preliminary work had started on renovation of Alvamar Racquet and Swim Club for use as the school’s new campus.

“It’s really exciting to see forklifts driving across those tennis courts,” he said.

Bishop Seabury’s board of trustees had hoped the Episcopal school, which launched in 1997, could be moved in January, but adjustments to renovation plans set the deadline back. The plan is to move next summer, Carter said.