Peter Riley
Barbara,
Beverly and I were so sorry to hear of your loss. Rich Lotze called us tonight and sent us a copy of Jim's Obituary from the Poughkeepsie Journal.
I met Jim on my very first day of teaching at Van Wyck in September of 1965. As you know, this was during the big expansion of IBM in the Fishkill and Poughkeepsie sites.
The Wappingers Falls district was growing by leaps and bounds and Van Wyck was just opened and this was the first day. The school was staffed by mainly first year teachers. Jim was one of only 5 tenured teachers. I think he had 13 or 14 years experience at that time.
Needless to say, many of these rookies needed a lot of help and guidance. Jim was the man to do it. I firmly believe that Jim played a big role in helping Van Wyck become the excellent school it was and being instrumental of helping the large percentage of these 1st year rookies become excellent teachers, many of whom spent their entire career in the Wappingers district.
He put up with no foolishness from the students or these new young teachers. Some of the teachers were more afraid of him than the kids were. Over time many of us became good friends of Jim
I retired in 1999, 15 years after Jim retired. I can verify the fact that he remained a lively topic of conversation at least until then.
He was a good man and a great friend. We will never forget him.
Pete Riley
