AMHERST — He was the teacher who cried in his classroom the day after John Lennon was shot, played social justice and anti-war songs by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Jim Croce and Joni Mitchell for students every Friday, and wasn’t hesitant to talk about protesting the Vietnam War, even though he had previously served in the Air Force.
For more than 30 years, Brian McNamara taught fifth- and sixth-grade students at Wildwood Elementary School, not only giving them the foundation they would need to continue their education in junior high, high school and beyond, but also playing kickball and other sports with them during recess. He become close to students and their families, inviting many to dinners at his home with his wife, Judy.
“I told the kids I would be their friend for life, if you choose to be,” McNamara said. “I appreciated teaching as a situation where you built relationships with the students.
“It wasn’t just a job, it was a passion for me,” he added.
Now, 10 years after his retirement as a classroom teacher, the 71-year-old Mac, as everyone calls him, is facing the debilitating effects from a rare form of cancer that has caused him to shed 50 pounds, left him weak and with side effects of treatment that talking in a hushed voice and having weeping eyes that require him to constantly dab tissues against them.
With possibly limited time for former pupils to reconnect to their beloved teacher, an all-class reunion is being held to honor McNamara at 4 p.m. June 25 at Rafter’s Sports Bar & Restaurant, which will be followed by an all-class high school reunion at 6 p.m. at the same location.
“It’s very special to me,” said McNamara, who taught from 1974 to 2006, and then continued to volunteer at Wildwood, as well as tutoring from a private office.
“This will be in my body forever, so it puts some urgency on getting together with my former students, my good friends,” he said.
Seemingly in perfect health, McNamara said he was vibrant and active until May 2015 when he noticed blood in his urine, what he thought might be the result of prostate problems. The diagnosis, though, was more dire: a rare form of urethral cancer.
“It was a total shock,” McNamara said.
At Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, McNamara underwent a nine-hour surgery to remove the growth and then spent nine days recuperating in the hospital.
Since then, he had three months of chemotherapy last fall, administered at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and an additional three months of chemotherapy over the winter.
Next, he could start on a therapy from a clinical trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, though he would prefer not to travel to Boston frequently.
“This illness is as much mental as it is physical, it just came out of the blue, this illness,” McNamara said.
Many students decided to become educators themselves because of McNamara’s influence.
“I’m pleased to see so many students have gone on to jobs where they can change the world,” McNamara said.
One of those who pursued the educational field is Liz Doran, of South Boston, who works as a school counselor at a public high school near Boston. “Mr. Mac created a learning environment that was fun, challenging and safe,” said Doran, 28, recalling when students had “big hair day” and got to do Billy Joel sing-a-longs
“He helped me to discover my own unique potential while building my confidence in my own interests and abilities,” Doran said.
Similarly Sara Ewell, 37, who returned to Amherst a few years ago, became a teacher because of McNamara’s style.
“The passion and love he brought to the classroom was amazing,” Ewell said. “When I entered my own classroom as a teacher, I often thought back to lessons Mac taught and tried to mimic them.”
Engineering is the occupation for Sarah Morton, who credits her love of math and science to McNamara.
“I remember him spending a lot of time explaining word problems in as many ways as he could until finally I got it,” said Morton, 48, of Amherst. “It really was like a light bulb went on in my head.”
Eric Davis, a 47-year-old lyricist and composer and technology management and operations consultant based in New York City, is one student who vividly recalls McNamara’s reaction to Lennon’s death.
“At school I remember seeing Mac cry that day. It may have been just for a moment, but the way I remember it he cried all day,” Davis said.
Constance Chen said that McNamara was the “epitome of cool.”
“Mac taught us how to be be good citizens and functioning members of society,” said Chen, 47, a microsurgeon in Manahattan. “There was a magic about Mac that touched every kid that was lucky enough to be in his class.”
One of the main organizers of the event, Cinda Jones, president of W.D. Cowls, Inc., calls McNamara a life-changing teacher.
“The great values I have and the appreciation for the most important moments in life were improved by Mac,” Jones said. “Over the past 35 years I have sent numerous letters of thanks for all he did and was to me and so many of us.”
“I appreciate this opportunity that Cinda has put so much time and energy into,” McNamara said. “This is a dream come true for me.”
He describes his arrival in Amherst as serendipitous, after being forced to leave a job at Willowbrook, a state school for the mentally retarded in New York City, where he helped then young journalist Geraldo Rivera get inside and report on the poor conditions. This prompted the McNamaras to head to New Hampshire to visit friends, and on their way discovered Amherst.
“We just stopped here and people were so friendly and we felt like were in a mini New York,” McNamara said.
He remains thankful to parents who didn’t micromanage his approach to education.
“I knew when kids went to the middle school they were ready academically,” he said.
McNamara said the importance of the school children in his life has remained.
Of the 400 or so Facebook friends, he estimates that 350 are former students. And the tutoring has allowed him to continue getting his “kid fix,” as he puts it.
“They know I loved being around them, and that I learned more about teaching and being a good teacher by being around them than I ever did in college,” McNamara said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
