Times Observer photo by Lorri Drumm Ash Khare, of Warren, talked with Warren Area High School History Club members on Thursday about his background, accomplishments, and his service as an elector to the Electoral College. Khare’s message to the students — “Dream big.”

Someday in the distant future, two dudes time traveling in a telephone booth could earn a most excellent grade if they convince Thursday’s History Club to join the likes of Socrates and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Jewel Rozanski, Warren Area High School Spanish teacher, and History Club adviser, recently enlisted the help from her friend, Ash Khare, to arrange a tour for the club during a trip to Harrisburg.

Khare was happy to be of assistance.

As repayment for his generosity, Rozanski offered him the chance to share some of his life stories, and specifically his experience as a delegate from our region for the electoral college in the 2016 presidential election. Members of the club stayed after school on Thursday to hear about that experience.

Khare told the students he was born in India. His family had no money and lived in a one-room residence.

“We shared a toilet with another family,” he said.

He came to the U.S. to study in 1969 “with $8 in his pocket.

“Some nights there was no food,” he said. “I went to bed hungry.”

Khare came to this country on a research assistantship for a master of metallurgy program at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He told the students it was a miserable place to live, but he was determined and worked hard.

He came to Warren in 1975 to work as a metallurgical engineer at National Forge Company. When he retired in 2002, he started Ash Khare Consulting LLC.

Khare became a U.S. citizen on Friday, Nov. 13, 1981.

“Yes, it was Friday the 13th,” he jokingly said.

One of the students asked Khare how this all led to his interest in politics?

“I made steel,” he said. “You can only get so much excitement from that.”

“How did you get involved?” another student asked. “Nike had it right,” he said. “You just do it.”

He shared his excitement and enthusiasm as he showed the students his collection of autograph hats and newspaper articles, pins, cuff links and photos with former presidents.

“My wife and I were invited to George W. Bush’s Christmas party,” he said. “Barbara Bush was so cool.”

Khare served as a member of the electoral college for Pennsylvania in elections in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. The Republican Party did not win in Pennsylvania during those elections.

It was a different story when Khare served as an elector in 2016. He was chosen as the 10th delegate when Donald Trump won more than just Pennsylvania. Khare said he was that 270th vote that put Trump over the top. And that vote didn’t come without objections and threats.

Khare told the students that he received tens of thousands of letters prior to casting his vote.

“I got physical threats,” he said. “I had police drive by my house twice a day.”

Another student then asked Khare his thoughts about those who oppose the electoral college and a movement to “get rid of it.”

“The framers of our constitution were so smart,” he said. “It would be difficult to change.”

Khare also explained that such a move would allow the five most populous states to dominate the presidential election process.

“We can put in whoever we want if we go to the five big states,” he said.

After the students had picked Khare’s brain, he assigned them some homework.

“I want you to go home tonight and dream the impossible dream,” he told them. “Then come back and tell your teacher what it is and make it happen.”