POWAY - Tom Middleton was tough. Tough in the classroom. Tough on the field.

And hundreds - possibly thousands - of kids could be better off for it.

The retired Poway High School history teacher and coach, who passed away earlier this month, didn't accept slacking or excuses. Not from his most challenged students, and not from his brightest.

"You weren't allowed to skate through a class by being a good test-taker … you had to prove you understood," said daughter Kate Glenn. "His philosophy was, 'don't be afraid to demand a lot, because kids will meet and exceed your expectations.' "

Middleton brought that philosophy to school each day for nearly four decades - the last 24 years of that at Poway High School, where he taught history and coached football and wrestling.

His true love was history, Glenn said.

The son of a Hollywood acting teacher and a stylist to the stars, Middleton grew up on movie sets in Los Angeles. In third grade, he got in a fight with the actor who played Spanky from the Little Rascals, Glenn said.

His punishment? To sit in the library all summer, helping the librarian stack books and occasionally sneaking in an afternoon in the historical section.

"He fell in love with reading and history," Glenn said. "He used to read four books at a time at night."

Middleton was born in the small central California town of Hanford. His family moved to Los Angeles to pursue his parents' film industry dreams. He graduated from high school there and entered the Coast Guard, where he traveled in New York and Boston.

He returned to California after his service and attended Whittier College, where he joined the swim team.

After long practices at the pool, Middleton frequented a nearby diner. It was there that he met Carla, a waitress and single mother of three. The couple married when Middleton was 25, and they moved to Northern California to pursue his teaching and coaching dreams.

After about 10 years of coaching in small towns and adding to their family, the Middletons moved to Poway in 1971, when Tom landed a job teaching civics and history and coaching sports.

He spent the next 24 years at Poway High, retiring in 1995. Tom adopted Carla's three children and the couple had two more, bringing their family to seven.

None of the children knew until they were much older that any of them were adopted, Glenn said. "We were just family; there were no divisions," she said.

Middleton was a pensive, intense and deliberate man, his daughter said.

"There was a quiet resolve about him," she said. "He was very much committed to having you know how to think."

Middleton continued his educational passions by spending his retirement developing civic education programs through a federally funded program called the Center for Civic Education. He worked with the center until shortly before his death on May 15. Middleton was 78.

"He lived life with 100 percent gusto," she said. "Nothing about him was casual. He was all about making life count."

Middleton is survived by Carla, his wife of 53 years, as well as five children, eight grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews. A celebration of his life is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at 15098 Andorra Way in San Diego.