Professor Boucher is a character in Young Sheldon. He was portrayed by the late Lance Reddick. Prior to his tenured professorship in civil engineering, he was part of the US Army Corps of Engineers and built bridges all over the world. In the 1990s, he teaches the Civil Engineering Lab at East Texas Tech, where he has Sheldon Cooper as a student. His strict military discipline, from assigning numbers to his pupils to his adherence to schedules (including a dislike of interruptions and intolerance of latecomers by locking the door at exactly 0900), fit well with Sheldon's predisposition initially. However, this harsh taskmaster focuses on practical applications—not fancy theories to which Sheldon is accustomed— for the class' design project, which can be on suspension, beam, or truss bridges (but not Beau Bridges as he jokes). While Sheldon's initiative impresses Boucher, he drives this point by ripping up Sheldon's initial designs several times. Eventually, Sheldon complains to President Linda Hagemeyer, who tells Professor Boucher that Sheldon should be kept happy. Her words do not phase him. Even Sheldon's dad once comes in and talks to him, but they bond over their teaching methods, that is, to tear students down and rebuild them. Thanks to Boucher's unwillingness to hand out the answer, it strikes Sheldon that wind can trigger vibrations and that, if these vibrations occur at the resonant frequency, the oscillations will generate an excitation which can cause the bridge to lose its structural integrity.
Sheldon is late on one occasion, but is not able to enter due to his policy of keeping the door locked, so Sheldon complains again. Hagemeyer once again calls Boucher to her office, but inquires about the look on Sheldon's face. He accurately portrays the prodigy's consternated face once again, to her amusement. (An Introduction to Engineering and a Glob of Hair Gel)
| v · e · d Young Sheldon Characters
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| Main Characters | Main | Sheldon Cooper ‧ Mary Cooper ‧ George Cooper Sr. ‧ George Cooper Jr. ‧ Missy Cooper ‧ Meemaw ‧ Jeff Difford ‧ Billy Sparks ‧ Amanda McAllister | |
| Recurring and Minor Characters | John Sturgis ‧ Tam Nguyen ‧ Paige Swanson ‧ Veronica Duncan ‧ Brenda Sparks ‧ Herschel Sparks ‧ Victoria MacElroy ‧ Evelyn Ingram ‧ Wayne Wilkins ‧ Hubert Givens ‧ Sheryl Hutchins ‧ Gene Lundy ‧ Tom Petersen ‧ Le Nguyen ‧ Trang Nguyen ‧ Mai Nguyen ‧ Kim-Ly Nguyen ‧ Barry Swanson ‧ Linda Swanson ‧ Erica Swanson ‧ Dale Ballard ‧ Selena ‧ Robin Difford ‧ Jana ‧ Marcus Larson ‧ June ‧ Grant Linkletter ‧ Linda Hagemeyer ‧ Pat ‧ Professor Boucher ‧ Jim McAllister ‧ Audrey McAllister ‧ Amber | ||