Two weeks after he was hit by a truck, Physics Professor William Thornburg is in good spirits and hopes to resume teaching within a week.

Thornburg, 69, suffered a concussion, a separated shoulder and received stitches in his head after he was thrown 24 feet while walking in a crosswalk near the Hornet Bookstore Feb. 7.

“I still don’t have the energy, and I have to be careful that I don’t stand up too quickly,” Thornburg said Monday.

The professor drove himself to campus Monday to check on his classes, said Heidi Yamazaki in the physics and astronomy department.

“He’s doing incredibly well, considering he could have been killed,” said Jan Thornburg, the professor’s wife.

Thornburg is a part-time faculty member, but is currently employed as a temporary full-time professor due to lack of faculty. All six of his classes were covered by others in the department, but Thornburg said he hopes to be back in the classroom soon.

“I’m probably going to start back to work at the end of this week or the beginning of next week,” he said. He plans to start back gradually, he said.

Teaching is a second career for Thornburg, who retired from Pacific Bell in 1985 and went back to school to get a Master’s degree in physics. After graduating from the University of California, Davis, he began teaching at the community college level, and he now teaches exclusively at Sac State.

“I’m doing exactly what I always wanted to do,” he said. “I feel very fortunate that I was able to do it.”

On the night he was hit, Thornburg was crossing the road to retrieve books and supplies for his evening astronomy class. He never made it to his car, and the books were stolen that night by vandals.

After Thornburg was taken to the hospital by ambulance, a family member drove his car home and parked it in his driveway, where it was then vandalized. Though Thornburg said the vandals took nothing of “great value,” they did take some of his teaching materials.

Despite the events of the last two weeks, Thornburg remained optimistic and grateful for the support given him.

“If this accident has an upside, it’s how good people have been to me,” Thornburg said. “I’ve received incredible support from home, friends and the school.”

Sac State President Donald Gerth called him at home last week to check on his condition, and Thornburg said the physics department has also been extremely helpful. The man who hit Thornburg also called him, and Thornburg said he was “extremely sorry.”

Thornburg said he has no intentions of taking legal action against the man or the University, and his main concern is that such an accident not happen again.

“People just need to slow down, pay attention and realize that pedestrians have the right of way,” Thornburg said. “I bet they’ve moving at 40 mph, and you know, you really don’t save much time.”