Brown bids E-town farewell

Third Place

Feature Story

Division 3

Brown bids E-town farewell

Shea Mascia

Grade 10

E-Town ExPRESSion

Elizabethtown HS

Adviser: Michele Cekovsky Henry

As some students hurriedly crammed for first semester finals and other anticipated their new classes, math teacher Dennis Brown was reflecting on his longtime career in the district and prepared to say his goodbyes before officially retiring.

Although Brown made a career of teaching, he admits that this wasn’t always what he had in mind.

“I went to college not knowing what I wanted, but once I got involved with teaching for the first few years, I realized I liked it,” he said.

Hired in 1973, Brown spent his first seven years of employment in the middle school teaching Algebra and Geometry. For the last twenty-eight years, however, Brown has been teaching Geometry and Pre-Calculus in the high school.

At age 55, Brown decided to retire not because he was tired of teaching, but, rather because of some unfinished business.

“I want to have the opportunity to travel while I am still young, and my wife is already retired as well,” Brown said.

For those that think retiring mean slowing down, think again. Brown has already traveled to four continents, but he’s not stopping there. He and his wife have planned several trips to keep themselves busy.

“In March we are going to Florida for baseball spring training, and next January we are going to Antarctica. My wife and I have a goal to see all seven continents, and Antarctica will be number five,” he said.

Although teaching for 35 years has created a whirlwind of memories, Brown says what he most enjoyed throughout his career was being a coach.

“The greatest satisfaction in my experience was coaching girls’ softball. The connections you make with students outside of the classroom setting tend to be more special,” he said.

Losing all these connections, perhaps, will be the hardest part of retirement.

“I will definitely miss the social contact with students and fellow teachers,” Brown said.

Throughout the school, students and teachers alike share how Brown has impacted them as a teacher, colleague, and friend.

Junior Hayley Abernathy, who had Brown for Geometry and Pre-Calculus, said, “I really liked his teaching style, and he was always willing to help. Pre-Calculus was really hard, but he didn’t get impatient why the students needed help.”

Senior Larissa Schirato has a similar opinion.

“He thoroughly explained everything, and he wouldn’t move on until everyone understood a lesson. We’re all going to miss him a lot,” she said.

In addition to a teaching style conducive to learning, many say Brown created a laid-back learning environment.

“I liked how he incorporated stories of his life into the class to make it fun in addition to teaching,” sophomore Carey Heisey said.

He was a favorite for many students, but his impact reached further than students alone. Long-time E-town teachers agree that Brown’s retirement was a bittersweet farewell.

“Mr. Brown was my colleague for 23 years. I value his friendship, advice, and eloquence. My favorite piece of advice from him is ‘go with the flow.’ I need to be reminded of that from time to time!” math teacher Kay Baxter said.

Science teacher Chris Eurich agrees that Brown will surely be missed.

“Mr. Brown was personable, conscientious, dedicated and highly successful teacher and coach. His approach to teaching and coaching was systematically planned and based on many years of experience, which benefited his students and athletes. While providing much structure to the lessons in his classroom and on the field, he always enjoyed a good laugh and found humor in the day-to-day events of life,” he said.

Since Brown’s absence, middle school teacher Frank Telenko has moved to the high school to teach some of Brown’s second semester classes. Telenko is currently teaching Honors Geometry, On Level Geometry and Algebra, while Christine Stallings is teaching Brown’s Pre-Calculus class.