I just found out that one of my favorite people in the whole world passed away on Saturday. My East High School Principal, Mr. McPike, was one of the most inspiring, amazing people I've ever met (and I don't use terms like that lightly). He had a profound impact on me and pretty much everyone that went to East. He knew us all by name, was so kind-hearted, but didn't take any crap from anyone (he was a San Francisco 49er before he became our Principal).
I was senior class president and editor of the newspaper and had a bunch of other over-achiever roles during high school and so I got to know him pretty intimately. I used to walk into his office all the time with all these crazy ideas or controversies--like my interview with a group of closeted gay students that I insisted on publishing in the school newspaper (a big deal for a Wisconsin high school in 1998), or my protest against Coca-Cola trying to infiltrate East through school sponsorship, or my crazy schemes on what to do with 98 christmas trees my class had stolen/cut down and put in the school on Christmas day. And even though I'm sure he thought I was nuts half the time and we'd argue over things, he was always so supportive and made me feel really good about taking initiative and being so involved in the school community.
A few months ago while I was home for Thanksgiving I saw him on the bus from Madison to Milwaukee. I actually got on to the wrong bus during a rest stop and there he was. I hadn't seen him in years. He looked the same except thinner and less towering. Even though I've been out of high school for almost 10 years, he acted like it was yesterday and that I had been his favorite student of his 20 some years at East. He said he thought about me a lot and had been following my career and was proud of me and he gave me a big hug. Even though he probably says that to a lot of former students it meant so much to me at the time and just underscored his absolute gift for making everyone around him feel special.
Mr. McPike will be greatly missed. But more than most, he has left legacy of touching thousands and thousands of us--as an educator, mentor, and as a friend.
"FIRST DEBUTED IN D.C..THEN AMMAN, JORDAN.. NEXT WAS SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK.. AND NOW WE ARE IN BOSTON!"
3 comments:
Well put Schiavoni. He will definitely be missed.
Very nice remembrance. He was a special guy. We asked him to stay on as principal until you graduated and, even though he was looking to retire, he stayed until after you graduated.
I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.
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