I had the good fortune of working with John as a principal and then as an assistant superintendent in Forest Hills. Later as a superintendent, myself, I implemented many of the practices he had modeled for me. One of these practices was that John had a voluntary meeting for every school (9 of them) once a month. His goal of these meetings was to listen to faculty and staff and hear their concerns. He held these meetings if there was one person in attendance or 100. He answered all of their questions with empathy and integrity. He showed he cared, and he supported their daily work with students. Now one funny story - cell phones were just becoming a valuable tool for educators, and this was one technology that John was “all in”. At one point he had two cell phones so that he would never miss a call from a parent, resident or educator. While he was driving to an administrative meeting, he was talking to a parent on one of his phones. I was riding shotgun holding the other phone and it rang. He signaled to me to hand him the other phone. He grabbed that phone and let go of the steering wheel. I grabbed the steering wheel and he kept talking on both phones as we headed down I- 275. After he finished both calls we looked at each other and doubled over with laughter. John loved his job because he cared about each student and each educator and he demonstrated this care by always taking time to listen. “Well done, good and faithful
servant”, enjoy eternal peace. Your legacy lives on…
Dr. Bob Farrell
Thank you so much Dr Farrell for this story! It really helps me understand why he worked so hard. He cared so much about the students, teachers and parents.