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SAD SHARING
POSTED 5/13/17

     On May 11, 2017, Bill Lown, longtime teacher, coach, and Athletic Director of the Brentwood Schools passed away.
   Visitation Sunday 2-6 pm at The Branch Funeral Home, 190 E. Main St. Smithtown, NY 11787. Funeral Service 10:00 am Monday at First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown. Interment to follow with military honors at Calverton National Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to: L.I. Alzheimer's Foundation, 5 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050. www.legacy.com

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Why did we do it?
     What was our purpose in taking on such an open ended “History Project”; for which we evolved a script of questions and got answers from over 150 subjects for two decades?
     We couldn’t answer the question in 1994 when people would ask “What are you going to do with the interviews?” All we could say was that for educational purposes we had to document our record now or lose the chance to preserve so many poignant accounts, funny stories and touching tales told by exemplary educators. We knew these dedicated public servants might shortly, for reasons yet unknown, be leaving Brentwood for good.
     So, we decided to let time sort out the details. We began scheduling appointments. We asked questions and listened saving for generations the essence of what it meant to have been an educator or employed, in this large public school system during the second half of the 20th century. Brentwood remains an exemplar to all others; a diverse microcosm of America reflecting 124 districts on Long Island while simultaneously resembling thousands across the U.S. We’ve accomplished something here to be proud of. Whether we were interviewed or not, ours is a claim of service that few professionals in the State of New York or elsewhere have positioned themselves to share in the way we have.
     INITIALLY the practice of sitting with a subject for an hour and giving them a hundred percent focused attention seemed somewhat daunting to a number of friends and colleagues. So much so in fact that many declined our repeated invitations to speak with us as they left careers or retired from full employment. Despite all assurances that we were not about investigative journalism or invading privacy, they deferred. Now, twenty years after we began, some are saying they may be ready. “Better late than never” we say. However, to all among you who were willing to share not only your classroom experiences and personal stories, but precious memories from your lives along with your fondest hopes for the future, we say “Thanks”. Thanks for allowing us to continue the process by paying it forward as we share these interviews with the Brentwood community and countless professionals and researchers near and far. Through an acceptance of ROBS offer of collaboration with Archivist Dr. Geri Solomon and The Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra University our History Project lives on in academia as well as in the collection of the Brentwood Public Library, thanks to Director, Thomas A. Tarantowicz.
   Enjoy unlimited visits to www.robsny.org where you can watch and listen to segments from featured Interviews in the ROBS History Project Section on our Announcements Page each month. Return here to listen and learn again and again.

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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED HISTORY PROJECT
INTERVIEW:

Charles Edward Goehring
Athletic Director
June 16, 1998
      Charles (Chuck) Edward Goehring joined us for this interview on June 16th 1998. He would be fifty five years young upon his retirement on June 30th of that year having given thirty-three years to the Brentwood School District. He admitted to us that it had been one of the best decisions of his entire life to pursue education as a career but acknowledged doing it for the wrong reason. He recalled a conversation with an adult about business courses he was taking in anticipation of achieving his goal of making a lot of money. What stood out in his memory was something he was told to make him change direction. He was asked to consider how in choosing there were things that money could buy and things that no amount of money could ever buy. Good health might be afforded with sufficient money but no amount of cash could ever give you time if and when you might need it. Time - the most important commodity to consider when making life decisions. It was explained that time was something teachers had more of than in any other profession. They worked 180 days per year and had 185 days off. (No one told him they weren’t compensated for the latter or that it might require 2nd, 3 rd jobs, plus part time employment to cover our living expenses or meet family responsibilities).  
     I came to Brentwood in 1963, two years before Chuck arrived. From that point on we watched one another from a distance for more than three decades as our personal lives ebbed and flowed from experience to experience while being a part of the larger extended Brentwood family we felt we were. In many ways his life mirrored my own and all of our lives as he shares stories of his parents and siblings, his immigrant roots (East German ancestry), and his unfamiliar American heritage. There was his father’s brush with alcoholism and the mind numbing tragic house fire that claimed the lives of his wife and young son even as he assured me it was alright because he believed “life doesn’t give us more than we can’t handle”. Here again we find in his story an example of how the community of Brentwood came together to care for one of its own.
      The marriages, childhood fears and seminal memories, formative influences, life in St. Albans, Queens, Jamaica and Amityville, L.I., were but prelude to graduation from High School in 1960, College in Kansas and arrival in Brentwood in 1965, the year of the single greatest number of new hires in district history and an unforgettable job interview with Wade Cummings.
      His story is profoundly beautiful and one you will enjoy learning about as Chuck recounts his many highs, lows, gains, losses, and his grateful acceptances of people and opportunities he was fortunate to encounter along life’s high way through Brentwood. His memory of former students and colleagues and of the special moments that stand out in this story will command your attention, respect and admiration as they did mine. His is a tale of consummate courage and consistent perseverance in the face of obstacles he had to overcome. Throughout the sixty years of Brentwood High Schools existence Chuck’s nine years as Athletic Director will go down in our annals as one of the most accomplished in our history - because we survived. Unblemished as his tenure was by allegation of scandal, any hint of negative press or controversy, seven of those years occurred during times of fiscal austerity. There are many names associated with his passionate pursuit of the high road during those years that will be recognized by those of you who read this or watch his interview and remembered for their own unique contribution to our lives. Pat McMann, Wade Cummings, Stan Kellner, Marty Reiger, Mike Tully, Bill Lowin, Reggie Poquette, Fred Weaver, Matt Fey, Jim Sabatelle, Bob Hoppy, Roy Rapp, Dave Martz, Frank Mauro, and Guy DiPietro being several including the giants among them.
    

Rich Graziano
Mr. Graziano's Science Class
Academic Enrichment and Remedial Website

 
              Classified Section

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The Town Crier" was set up a number of years ago so that the retirees of the Brentwood School District could have an email center to stay in touch. Since I began to send out all sorts of information, retirees from all over the country have sent me their email addresses. Some have asked, "Do you have any idea where so and so is?" Others have sent proud news of their accomplishments, their family news, photos,etc. and sadly, we often get bad news. Many retirees whom I have never met write me to thank me for keeping this connection going, as everyone remembers the Brentwood years with warm feelings.

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