March 2011 Issue
February 23, 2011

Passings

Source: NYSUT United

Emil Voigt, longtime president of the Jericho Teachers Association and a former member of the NYSUT Board of Directors, died Nov. 18. Active in development of VOTE-COPE, NYSUT's voluntary political action fund, he led the Jericho TA from 1970 to 2001 and served as an at-large NYSUT director from the 1970s to 2001, when he retired.

Alan Shapiro, a leader in student-centered education, died Jan. 28 after a short illness. He was 85. A founder of the New Rochelle Federation of Teachers in the early 1960s, Shapiro in 1970 helped develop "The Program for Inquiry, Involvement and Independent Study" — the 3I Program — a model for other "schools without walls."

James Bostwick Nowak, a member of the Fairport Education Association who had been working on humanitarian projects in Africa since his retirement in 2006, was killed Jan. 28 in a car-truck crash in Kenya. He was 59. Nowak helped create Building Futures Inc., which is building schools and a health clinic in Kenya.

2010

Sue Felstein June 3
United Federation of Teachers

Thomas J. Genovese May 20
Oswego Classroom Teachers Association

David T. Ginenthal June 26
United Federation of Teachers

Walter Greenstein July 2
Lakeland Federation of Teachers

Sharon Jaffe March 2
New York City Board of Education

Fannie H. King April 5
United Federation of Teachers

Edward Stickney Levy Aug. 30
Whitesboro Teachers Association

Denise Camilla Petrez Aug. 23
United Federation of Teachers

Steven Steiner Dec. 9
United Federation of Teachers

Patricia Stiver May 23
Schoharie Central School TA

Muriel Newman Strauss Dec. 3
United Federation of Teachers

Edward A. Wimer April 26
Retiree Council 6