Only recently have researchers and practitioners become interested in teacher educator development and identity formation. The author explores the place of 'distant teachers' -- giants of the past whose lives and works prove powerful in self-formation. John Dewey and Boyd H. Bode are offered as examples of distant teachers; the development of the teacher-student relationship with Dewey and Bode is described. The author argues that 'Great teachers, distant teachers, grab and hold us because they stretch us and in stretching we re-imagine ourselves and begin to remake the world that holds us and that we, in turn, uphold.'