"...to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else,
means to fight the hardest battle which any human can fight; and never stop fighting.” - ee cummings
This old warrior girded up his loins,
strapped on his armor every morning,
and arrived at our schoolhouse gate
armed to the teeth with integrity.
So very un-nineties was he. Tom got crazier
just by standing still. In the 60’s,
normal, bizarre like everyone else, the 70’s-a bit
eccentric, the 80’s-slightly worrisome
oddball, 90’s-full blown nut. Imagine, he still
bellowed when in the throes of some passion,
or in the vise of an injustice, or when defending
kids he thought were getting the shaft. You never had to say, “I hear
you” to Tom. This guy could
frighten people, even his silences were boulders
that could flatten you. Suffering fools was
definitely
not his specialty, though his heart
flowed like lava for his students,
those many who’ll now miss their beloved
“Mista Hoopa.”
In modern parlance, he tended
“to act out,” so when he got tired one day
of picking up dirty dishes in the cafe,
he chose to implement a different
lesson plan, and hurled
a plate of spaghetti with spicy marinara against
a white wall,
and every teacher was horrified, and secretly
cheered, and a cafeteria’s worth of jaws
dropped, and somewhere in America
200 citizens are still clearing their tables,
and teaching their own kids to. Whether
he was fishing in some stream or in
a classroom, casting out or exploding that
great laugh which could
shake whole foundations,
no difference. He stood inside
himself, and was for us, every minute, who
he was, lover of books, poet, champion of the
neglected, advocate of the scorned, difficult,
cantankerous, outspoken, caring,
committed, never letting us off the hook,
reminding always that what’s professed
must be lived, and what’s learned
must be applied,
and he leaves us now, the old guard
changing, a quieter school,
a less difficult place,
taking with him the
“unspeakable vision of
the individual,”
and the presence of a man
no renovation
can ever replace.
On the occasion of his retirement from
L-S after 33 years.
