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Because the South Philly Review is issuing its third collection of Rising Stars today, I wanted to give recognition to the men and women who educated me in classroom settings. I always had ample ambition as a student, but I know that I could not forge any sort of stable navigation through life without the input of many compassionate individuals. I am thankful for every educator with whom I have interacted, with many of them actually helping me to frame my teaching philosophy, which I have called upon when overseeing my own classes and in being a father. Thank you to these figures and their classroom colleagues. You are all rising stars to me.
10) Fr. Albert Santorsola: As my freshman year religion teacher at St. John Neumann High School, Fr. Albert Santorsola offered amazing replies to my inquiries on our often troubling times and kept me and my classmates in hysterics with some of his sayings and the names that he would give for our imaginary girlfriends, with Rita Rigatoni drawing a smile from me as I typed this entry.
9) Dr. Mary Schmelzer: As an undergraduate student at Saint Joseph’s University, I loved to challenge myself in fulfilling my English major and often heard that if I were truly serious about intensifying my understanding that I should take a class with Mary Schmelzer. I could not stop at just one and still recall with fondness her affinity for encouraging me and my peers to ponder and probe tirelessly. Fifteen years removed from her tutelage, I still revisit my notebooks and nod.
8) Dr. Julie McDonald: When I enrolled at Saint Joe’s, I wanted to work on my then-reserved nature and my interest in helping people through troubling times. Julie McDonald served as my philosophy instructor for each semester of my freshman year, with the sessions’ service learning component intensifying my compassion and certainly helping me to shed my shyness. I thank her for encouraging me to speak up for myself and to believe in my comprehension of the world around me.
7) Vincent Coyne: Mr. Coyne served as the precursor to Dr. McDonald in increasing my confidence. As my sophomore year and junior year Algebra II and Trig/Pre-Calc teacher at Neumann, he, like Fr. Santorsola, had an assortment of sayings that will live with me forever. His friendship, through which he spoke of belief in constantly challenging oneself, will prove immortal, too.
6) Dr. Richard Wertime: Easily the most brilliant man I have encountered, Dr. Wertime became an acquaintance of mine in early 2005 when I started my graduate education at Arcadia University. Three years later, he instructed the most difficult, and therefore the most powerful, course that I had in my Glenside sojourn, helping me to admire the work of Willa Cather and to fall for being an unflagging admirer of brilliant literature.
5) Sr. Mary Ella: As my first-grade teacher at the since-shuttered Saint Mary of Czestochowa School in Southwest Philly, Sr. Mary Ella possessed an angelic voice and a golden heart. The smallest matters can trigger recollections of anyone, frankly, and when I feed my son, I often remember her instruction to chew everything 60 times before swallowing it. Here’s hoping that a lesson that I picked up three decades ago will come to mind 30, 40, even 50 years from now.
4) Michael Sheehan: I tend to fear situations far more than people, but I must say that when I learned I would be taking Advanced Placement English during my senior year at Neumann, I panicked because I felt instructor Michael Sheehan would find nothing I write coherent or competent. Foolish teenager! Mr. Sheehan became a trusted advisor and a very fair assessor of my writing, and I thank him for his constant encouragement to revisit works to gain additional lessons from them.
3) Charles Haub: Twice my instructor at Neumann, Charles Haub would have been my teacher far more often if I could have convinced the administration to let him oversee everything on my roster. As the party responsible for my Shakespearean obsession, he helped me to understand that “No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
2) Dr. Pradyumna Chauhan: The owner of easily my favorite name to pronounce, Dr. Pradyumna Chauhan also resounds as one of the most revered, captivating, and insightful individuals I have known. Twice his student at Arcadia, I marvel at how this man, with 49 years’ worth of time in Glenside, can still summon such brilliance with ease.
1) Fr. Francis Burch: Like Coyne, Sheehan, and Haub, Fr. Francis Burch is making his second appearance in one of these South Philly 10 articles, having appeared on my Oct. 8 list in conjunction with our Difference Makers issue. The education ranks lost a pioneer Aug. 30, 2013 when this Jesuit died at 82. A junior year instructor of mine at Saint Joe’s, Fr. Burch kept in contact with me following my time on Hawk Hill, with the period immediately following graduation, when I could not even sniff a job, a testament to his realization that tutelage need not be simply classroom-based. ■
Contact Editor Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
