Reflection #62 (Only 1014 to go): A Man of an Uncertain Age   Earlier this month, I celebrated my 75th birthday.   It’s not that big a deal; it is what it is.  I no longer can jump as high, or run fast, but those weren’t really my strengths when I was young anyway. This milestone did prompt me to become somewhat reflective.   Despite the advancements of modern medicine, it’s a pretty good bet that this will be my last “quarter century” celebration.  (No, I haven’t heard any dire report from my health-care provider.) This “reminiscence” is just about the years when I turned 25 and 50. When I turned 25 (Hmmm! It sounds like a missing verse from a Sinatra song.), I was fairly new at teaching and being at Ignatius.  I remember trying to copy the styles of other young teachers, like Carm Pintozzi and almost any Jesuit scholastic who was there.  They seemed to be on the same “wave length”…the terminology of the day …  with the students and had developed a rapport with them that I envied.  As a side note, around that time, Stan Wisniewski, SJ. (not yet a priest) encouraged me to join the Jesuits.  In retrospect, it was good for me…and probably for the Jesuits…that I didn’t. Of course, Mal and “Moos” were still going strong, but they were “gods”, whose mystique was unattainable.  Neither Pat O’Mara nor Bob Gabric had arrived yet, and ultimately, they would become not only my mentors, but my friends. By the time that I turned 50, O’Mara had passed away, and Gabric had moved on to greener pastures.   Many things had changed in those 25 years, both at Ignatius and in the world.  At Ignatius, 6 principals had come and gone, including Frank Raispis, the first lay-principal.  In the church, Vatican II had taken hold.  World events included men traveling to the moon, and the Vietnam war was an unpleasant, but distant memory…except to those who were in it, or had a relative who was. Personally, I continued to perfect my skills both as a teacher and a tennis coach.  I have often said that I learned 90% about how to teach in my first year, but over the next 50+ years, I didn’t fully learn the last 10%.  I realize now that a part of the problem was that things change.   In 1961, there were no hand-held calculators.  When girls entered the scene, our approach had to be “tweeked”.    No more hitting, for example.  Now textbooks are being phased out, and replaced by laptops. Finally, I am now in a place where I think about the best, and safest, way to carry out the next task.  Trust me when I say, “safest”.  In the last 3 years, 4 close friends and contemporaries have fallen, and their lives have, to varying degrees, been altered.  Using my coaching experience, I have instructed my friends to walk “with their feet apart and their knees bent”.  Many already do that out of necessity, but it’s fun to watch whole groups of 70- and 80-year-olds walking that way.   Reply Forward Click here to Reply or Forward 0% full Using 0.01 GB of your 30 GB ©2014 Google - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy - Program Policies Powered by Last account activity: 3 minutes ago Details

Reflection #61 (Only 1015 to go): Jim Serpe

 

All teachers shed some light in a darkened room.  Most of us are like a birthday-cake candle.  With some teachers, it is as if the shades of the room are raised and the sunlight streams in.  It is about this latter group that I have often mused.  In previous reflections, I have described these teachers as having charisma…that indefinable quality that can only be seen by the impact that they have on their students.  Such was the case with Jim Serpe

On February 16, Jim passed away.  He was not only a great math teacher but a truly great man as well.  “Great” can be attributed to anyone who does great things.  A “truly great” man not only does great things, but he creates a template for others to copy.

I didn’t know Jim very well because he had spent most of his 65 years of teaching at Loyola Academy, but he did have a special connection to Saint Ignatius.  He was raised in the Little Italy neighborhood that borders Ignatius, he was an Ignatius graduate from the class of ’34, and he taught at St. Ignatius from 1942 to 1954, where he started as a Latin and Greek teacher, but fairly quickly moved to teaching math.

I first heard of Jim’s passing on one of my visits to see Joan Terracina, who was a contemporary of his.  (For those of you who were around Ignatius before 1990, she was the secretary to the treasurer from 1939 to 1989.)  She knew Jim before he met Anita to whom he was married for 70 years.  Joan told me what wonderful and kind a man he was.  Then I visited Frank Raispis, who was a student of Jim’s at Ignatius, and he echoed Joan’s feelings.

I’m not a big fan of characterizing a person’s career by their awards and acknowledgements, but, in Jim Serpe’s case, I’ll make an exception.  After all, how many high school math teachers are invited to appear on both Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres’ television shows...which he declined, by the way.  In 1980, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Georgetown University, and in the early ‘90’s, he received a lifetime teaching award from the Mathematics Teachers’ Association of Chicago.

The Rev. Jim Arimond, S.J., who was head master of Loyola for many years, said, “He was what everyone hopes for in a teacher.  Someone who has made such a wonderful impression on you that years later, you look back and remember in vivid detail how that person changed your life.”

Pat O’Mara often said that Jim was one of the best math teachers that he had ever had…high praise indeed coming from Pat.  Pat also ruefully said that Ignatius lost Jim because, as Jim’s family grew, he needed a higher paying position.   I don’t know if that’s true, but, since Jim and Anita raised 8 children, it makes sense that money could have been an issue.

In 1955, Jim went to Sacred Heart Seminary in Melrose Park, then joined the Loyola faculty in 1963 until he retired at the age of 92 in 2007.

 

One thing that I’ve noticed about the iconic teachers is that they were always “themselves”.  They didn’t try to copy others and they didn’t seem to concern themselves about what others thought of them.  They had a clear focus on what they were trying to accomplish.  Such seemed to be the case with Jim Serpe.  More than one remembrance of him referred to his garish ties and sports coats and how he would open the windows on the classroom in mid-winter to “to get his students’ brains going.”  For most other teachers, the outrageous clothing would have been met with derision. Opening windows would have caused parents to call the school with complaints, but not so with Jim Serpe.   According to Kevin Mistrik, a former colleague of Jim’s at Loyola, “the bottom line was that Jim loved his students and they loved him.  He was everybody’s favorite teacher.” 

Reflection #60: (Only 1016 to go): A Rare Opportunity revisited

 

            Last summer, I decided to take advantage of a rare opportunity.  Jim Luzzi is the first and, to date, the only head-coach for the varsity soccer team, so I posed a series of questions to him regarding his coaching experience, then posted a blog with all but his response to the question of what were his most memorable teams and seasons.. 

Since I knew that he was considering stepping down as head coach, it seemed reasonable to hold off on how he answered that question.   Good thing, too.  His 2013 team, which was his last year at the helm, achieved something that none of the previous 43 teams had.  They came in 2^nd in the state.  Needless to say, that moved this year’s team to among the top of that list.

In Jim’s original response to the question, he listed:

-the first  game of his first season (1970) in which we were ranked 4^th in the region after defeating Quigley South, but that only lasted for a week.

-In 1973, we had our first All-State player, Pat Velarde. 

-1981 brought our first of 7 state regional championships .

-1982-team posted 19 wins, … the most single season wins until 2012…

-in 1998, we won the Super-Sectional to advance to the “Elite-eight”

-2012 team’s record of 20 victories.

At the end of the 2013 season, I asked Jim to “up-date” his list, to wit he wrote, “How could I not include the 2013 team?  At the end of the 2012 season, I decided to coach one more year.   I thought that the 2013 team could win a regional, and possibly, a sectional title. To advance to the State Tournament Championship game was my coaching dream.”  At the end of his career as head-coach, Jim had posted a record of 484 wins, 410 losses and 94 ties.  As a former coach myself, I can attest to the fact that just coaching 988 games is a daunting accomplishment.

 

Jim was careful to point out that “memorable” should not be misinterpreted to mean “favorite”…maybe yes; maybe no…and teams who were not mentioned should NOT interpreted that as a lack of respect, admiration or appreciation on his part.  Of course, victories and championships are a sign of validation of a program, but there are other elements, such as cooperation, leadership and “coach-ability” that come into play when a coach recalls each season and team.

In his final remarks regarding his career, Jim said, ”In going through the Awards Night programs, I’ve been lucky to have outstanding young men on my teams.  I’ve maintained for a long time that I would continue to coach as long as the players made it enjoyable, and that has been true for 44 years.  I’m also lucky to have had assistants like John Chandler, Kevin Rigney, and in the past few years, Ryan Kearns and Rob Stassen.”

 

Coach Luzzi added that his leaving coaching now has nothing to do with it not being “enjoyable”.  It’s just time.   THANK YOU AND BLESS YOU, JIM!

Reflection #59 (Only 1017 to go): The Submarine Room

 

                        I open this reminiscence on a sad note.  I recently found out that Ron Sipowich has passed away.  Ron was a Latin teacher at Saint Ignatius from 1968 to 1974.  He was a good guy…funny, enthusiastic and inspiring.   Those who were around in those days will recall that, for Open House, he and a group of his students would build gigantic structures related to the Roman times.  One year, in the hallway on the second floor, they constructed a galleon made up of chicken wire and tissue paper.  Another year, he supervised the construction of a catapult that took up about half of a classroom.  

                        Please keep Ron and his family in your prayers.

 

            Since I’m retired, I don’t get to school very often these days, but when I do, I thoroughly enjoy visiting with …some might refer to it as “pestering”…the teachers who are around.  I suspect that it’s an occupational hazard of getting old that everything reminds me of something from my past.  I’m OK with that; there is some comfort in rooting through the attic of my memory, and recalling events and the changes that have occurred since I was a young teacher and coach.

            One such reminiscence occurred recently as I walked past the windows that look out over the small yard which lies between the school building and Holy Family Church.  Back in 1961, when I started, that yard was the parking lot for the lay teachers.  In ’61, there were only 15 laymen, and not all of them drove to school.  The rooms on the ground floor adjacent to that yard, now the art classrooms, were where lunches were served and the students ate.  Because of the paintings of ships that hung in that room, it was called the “Marine Room”.

In the early ‘60’s, Fr. Koch, the president of Ignatius at the time, had a Quonset hut      built in the afore-mentioned  yard so that the boys would have more room to eat.  Since its floor was slightly lower than the floor of the Marine Room, it was named the Sub-marine Room.  (If you remember the “Submarine Room”, you might want to make sure that your retirement paperwork is in order.)   That room continued to serve its purpose until the “new” gym was completed in the fall of ‘67, with the “Commons” which has served as the lunch room ever since, although now it’s called Tully Hall.

Once the Commons was built, the Quonset hut was converted to a theater, and finally a storage area for construction equipment.  Eventually it was torn down and made into a garden. Father Rowe expressed the wish that it would be used by the students to study and/or visit in a comfortable and serene setting.  To this day, this area remains a beautiful part of the campus, nestled within the confines of the school grounds.  It’s formal name is “The Daniel F. and Ada L Rice Garden.”

            As I muse about the changes that have occurred to the land around Ignatius since ’61,  I’m inclined to write about so many other changes that have occurred.  If you haven’t been back since the ‘80’s, it might be a worthwhile visit. 

Reflection #58 (Only 1018 to go): Seeking Truth

 

        In my retirement, I have been blessed to have found a hobby that I enjoy and which is very different from the life I lead as a teacher.  Don’t get me wrong. I loved my life as a teacher and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

       Now, I spend a fair amount of time in my basement scroll sawing; that is, making “pictures“ out of wood.  The alone-time affords me the opportunity to “contemplate the verities”.   

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the faculty room at Ignatius, having a pleasant conversation with Steve Lord.  For those of you who haven’t been around Ignatius since 1999, Steve teaches in the Religious Studies Department.  In earlier blogs, I speculated about who might be the “iconic” teachers filling the void of some of the greats of bygone eras.   Steve falls well within such a sphere.

In my conversation with Steve, as I was struggling to remember a name-from-the-past, I mentioned that a sharp memory is one of the assets sacrificed as payment for the privilege of growing old.  My compensation, however, is a certain level of “wisdom”*…”sign posts” along the road of life that hopefully appear when needed.  (Not a brag; this “wisdom” is just knowledge gleaned from experience over a whole lot of life.)

At this point, many other “young” teachers would have excused themselves saying their phone was ringing or they just remembered that they had to prepare a test for the next class.  I speak from experience because that’s what I did when I was a young man in the company of old-timers back in my day.

Not Steve.  Instead, he asked me what I had learned.  Given fair warning, I could have rattled off several tidbits, but I was so caught off guard by that invitation to expound, that all I could come up with was not to judge others.  In the Spalding-Raispis List of Cliches to Live By, it is written “View everyone’s motives in the best possible light.”  To quote Sydney J. Harris, “It is hard to weigh the faults of others without putting your thumb on the scale.”  Again, Steve didn’t just stare, or argue.  Rather, he seemed to agree, or, at least, consider that tenet as viable.

As I thought about our conversation, I was more and more impressed by his reaction.  Steve was born and raised in Texas and became a captain in the marines.  (Perhaps he still is in the reserves, but that I don’t know.) He saw action in Operation Desert Storm in the early ‘90’s, and afterwards he and his family came to Chicago when he received a scholarship to study Theology at the University of Chicago.

Steve told me that he had wanted to be a teacher which prompted the question, “Why religion instead of some other discipline?”.  Here’s was his response:  “After my war experience, I needed to make sense of the world and the confusing existence of profound evil in a good world.  I was swept away by the wisdom of the Church fathers and the richness of scripture.  My love for theology continues to grow.” 

I can see a common element between Steve’s quest and mine.  We both seek truth.  I have a feeling that he’s better at it than I am.

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.

 

");

Reflection #57 (Only 1019 to go): Alumni Revisited

 

 I can’t speak for all of my former teaching colleagues, but I genuinely enjoy the Ignatius reunions.   Near the middle of October, October 19^th to be exact, the classes of  ’68, ’73, ’78 and ’83 had their respective reunions, and it was great revisiting the experiences of their years at Ignatius  

The class of ’73 had a huge gathering, which included many of the men who I had coached on the sophomore basketball team.  I actually coached young men and, eventually, women in all 4 of those classes, but not always in basketball.  It’s great seeing my former athletes, because there is a unique bond between players and coaches of athletic teams.  

We don’t cling to those days out of a sense of desperation, but there is something invigorating about reliving the shared emotions and energy of athletic contests.  The unexpected wins, and even losses, are seen through the prism of both time and more- important issues in life, and can be recounted joyfully.

 It isn’t only former athletes that I enjoy seeing at reunions.  I’m interested in hearing how and what all of my former students are doing.   They tell me about their families, adventures and professional lives, and they seem to take a morbid pleasure in reminding me of things that I said that cause me to wonder how I kept my job all of those years.  It’s all great fun

With apologies to the members of the class of ’68, I failed to make it to their site that evening.  My age and the distance that I have to drive home impacted that omission.  Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to visit with them at their 50^th    reunion in 5 years.  It should be added that Bob Gabric was disappointed that he couldn’t make it, but he now lives in Tucson, AZ.

Speaking of alumni, I had to laugh a couple of weeks ago when I was watching  television…on a Tuesday evening, I believe.  In the first program, Andre Baugher, Ignatius class of ’80, was appearing as a police captain on the sitcom Brooklyn 99.  That was followed immediately by NCIS Los Angeles in which Vito Ruginis from the class of ’74 appeared in a reoccurring role as a Russian “businessman” (wink, wink!).  It’s fun and somewhat exciting to see former students suddenly show up on the screen.

Finally, when I was visiting the class of ’73, I ran into Bernie Reusz who is a dentist in the Downers Grove area.  My wife and I had gone to Bernie before we moved away.   That, in turn, reminded me that, when we went to Ireland this past summer, John O’Riordan, class of ’84, acted as our travel agent.  In fact, John, at  World Class Travels, has done a wonderful job of organizing several different trips for us always to our satisfaction.   (With a name like O’Riordan, it’s probably no surprise that he’s particularly skilled at organizing Ireland trips.)

When I started this “gig” of writing a blog for the school, I thought that it might be nice to give a shout out to Ignatius alumni who are self-employed or work for small companies.  I was told at that time that this is already done, but, with my limited computer skills, I’ve never found that site.

You’d think that, with a son who makes his living in I.T., I’d be able to find it.  Oh, well.

Reflection #56 (Only 1020 to go): Changing of the Guard

A smile crossed my face when the College of Cardinals elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. as the first Jesuit pope, and he promptly took the name “Francis”.  Finally Raispis was getting the recognition that he deserved.  (Just kidding…kind of)  Did you know that Frank Raispis actually considered entering the Jesuits following his college years, then spent the next 60+ years (1955 to 2012) working for them?

          A bigger smile twisted across my twisted face when I heard about the changes in the Vatican culture that Pope Francis was bringing about.  The reason for my smile was that, a year and a half ago, I was invited to give a speech at the 2012 graduation, and the main point of my speech was that an integral part of Jesuit education is that students should listen and learn, then use their knowledge, along with their intelligence to determine what is true and just.   They shouldn’t just follow along, doing what others have done or tell them to do. 
           Almost on cue, Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope…as well as the first non-European pope…came along to shake up the long-standing traditions of the papacy and the Vatican.   The cardinals are intelligent men, and they knew his  background and works in Argentina.  Considering some of the difficulties that the Church has had to deal with in recent years, it may well have been that the College of Cardinals decided to move in a direction that would show the world its intention to “right the ship”.  (This is NOT a religio-political statement …one of neither approval or disapproval…. definitely a can-of-worms that I do not care to open.)

The history of the Jesuits is both interesting and complex, and in a later blog, I’d like to revisit that in more detail, but for the moment, on a somewhat unrelated topic, I have been keeping tabs on some friends of ours…Frank Raispis, Mrs. Sue Connelly, Jim’s widow, and Joan Terracina, long-time secretary to the treasurer at Ignatius.  They are all doing pretty well.  As my mother-law use to say, they’re in pretty good shape for the shape they’re in.   I also talked to Bob Gabric who is sending his regards to those who knew him back-in-the-day.

That’s all for now, folks.