Dedication to education
Three teachers with combined 100-plus years in education retire
Tom Waring
For the Star
Three teachers with a combined 100-plus years in the classroom recently retired from Blessed Trinity Regional Catholic School, 3033 Levick St.
The retirees are Michael Skudar, Nancy Recine and Elisa Rooney.
Skudar graduated from LaSalle University in 1975 and began his teaching vocation in September of that year. That followed his pre-student teaching days in the early ’70s at his own grade school, Holy Name. Most of his years were spent teaching seventh grade, and he also served as a school librarian. He thanked his Holy Name mentors: Kathleen McDevitt Neri, Pat Vokes and Trish Gabriel. His career was spent at Ancillae Academy (1975–76), the former Epiphany of Our Lord at 11th and Jackson streets in South Philadelphia (1976–86) and St. Timothy/Blessed Trinity (1986–2018).
Recine graduated from Holy Family in 1980 and began teaching fifth and sixth grades at St. Joachim. She later was hired at St. TImothy (which was renamed Blessed Trinity after a merger five years ago) and stayed for 35 years. She taught third grade for 34 years before moving to fifth grade this past years. “The love and support from the Sisters of St. Joseph, the priests and the parents made my job a joy.”
Rooney graduated from Gwynedd Mercy College in 1978 and got her first teaching job shortly after at Nativity BVM in Port Richmond. She taught third and fifth grades there for six years until 1984, when she left to raise her first three children. She returned to teaching at St..Timothy in 1995, staying until it became Blessed Trinity. She taught sixth and eighth grades at Blessed Trinity the last five years.