Thank you, Ben Walter, for setting up this page. Maybe writing will help with the sadness and loss I feel tonight. Forty eight years ago, a delightful young man entered his fourth grade classroom at Saint Kevin School in Warwick, RI on the first day of the 1972/73 school year. He looked around for a desk bearing the name card “Gregg Chadwick” which was found in the back of the classroom on the left (next to William’s desk.) He sat down and placed the small football (Nerf maybe) he had brought to school on the desk and folded his hands, eyes on the teacher. I was the teacher, fresh out of college, and it was my first day of teaching ever. The plan was to talk, just talk, to those kids (there were 40 of them!) until recess. I had a mind to tell Gregg Chadwick to put his football in the cloakroom but was stopped by his bright eyes on me, head cocked-listening intently, and hands not messing with the football- not one bit! I decided to see how long he could keep it up. Amazingly, he kept it up until recess, then took his ball outside and afterwards placed it in the cloakroom without direction from me. He was a shining star- bright, popular, interested, happy, good natured, kind, and the list goes on- everything good except for, maybe, the handwriting, which he probably maintained just so as not to look too perfect! Gregg, you will stay in my heart forever!
