Peter Stacheki, retired Northport High School social studies teacher, passed away on May 22. Peter was born in 1943 and was pre-deceased by his wife Kathey. He is survived by his sons Christopher and Timothy, their wives, grandchildren Audrey and Lyle, brothers Charles and Richard and sister Linda Sendlenski. 

Pete taught Social at Middleville prior to teaching at the high school, where he also served as the ombudsman. As ombudsman he was dedicated, caring and always helped students to better understand their rights and responsibilities as students.  

Visiting 2-5 & 7-9 PM at the Nolan Funeral Home, 5 Laurel Ave., Northport, NY on Saturday May 29, 2021. Words of remembrance will begin at 8 PM. Cremation will be private.

If any members would like to share memories of Peter, please email [email protected]

I’ve taken four courses from USFSP (Univ. South Florida, St.Petersburg in subjects far from my specialization.  They made me work very hard to learn difficult material and especially to figure out how to use the internet to access  libraries, discussion groups, etc. on line. 

Dorothy Cappadona, East Northport Middle School, Social Studies and Asst. Principal

The pandemic caused disruption to everything including the simple procedure of renewing one’s membership in R-UTN. The returns dragged out over many months and too many failed to arrive. Since  I am the Membership Chair, the isolation and the extra time available turned me into a kind of Bureau of Missing Members. Using e-mails, snail mail, telephones and help from other Board Members, repeated contact attempts were made. The results and the appreciation of the people we reached made it a very rewarding activity.

Judy Bensimon, Elementary Teacher Dickinson Avenue and Northport Middle School, R-UTN Executive Board Membership Chair

Dr. Renee O’Brien, Professor of Photography at SUNY Adirondack has been the Chair of the Technology Division during this academic year and next year will lead a newly created division as Chair for the Arts, Media and Culture Division. It’s an exciting venture for Renee who has been teaching at the college beginning part time in 1999. As life took another turn, she was hired in 2008 to move the analog photography program into a digital program. With the success of the photography and graphic arts program, she’s looking forward to facilitating this new interdisciplinary division.

Renee O’Brien
Photography Teacher, Northport High School

The question is what I’ve been up to during Covid. 

As a 2019 Christmas gift, our daughter Dana signed me up with Storyworth.com, an online vanity publisher. Each week of 2020, Storyworth sent me a question about a particular life experience or moment, or something meaningful to me. I could choose which questions to answer and was invited to submit my own topics as well. Any photographs that illustrated my writings were encouraged in the JPEG format. All editing was to be done by me, the writer. My stories grew to 288 pages and featured everything from “Close Calls” to “Peace of Mind.”

After a year of submissions, my subscription to questions ended and a two-month editing period ensued. An email address of [email protected] proved quite helpful for technical and pricing questions I had.

The result of all this came in the mail this week:  three ordered copies of a hard-bound book I’d entitled “Glenn’s Stories … All True.” These hardbound books are 6” X 9” in size and feature a table of contents and selected photo for the cover. The first copy ordered comes with a $39 credit as part of the subscription, the price of each book with black and white photos. For color photos, the price is $79 per book plus our NYS state tax and shipping options.

I must say, Storyworth turned out to be one of the very best gifts in memory. Churning our narrative responses to their questions kept me off the streets, out of jail, and away from Covid-19. After editing tens of thousands of student essays in my teaching career, I got to challenge myself with each piece for the book. My thanks go to daughter Dana for this engaging experience, and to friend Linda Quinn and he newsletter staff for their question to our membership.

Glenn Baldwin, March 1, 2021
English Department, Northport High School

It’s not too late to send a submission to share with our membership. Send your anecdotes to [email protected], and be sure to include your name, school you retired from and subject taught – if applicable. Photos are welcome!

We asked our members to let us know how they survived the cloistered months of the pandemic, and beginning today we will be posting accounts of how our members fared during these trying times. Today post features reports from two of our members, Alan Drysdale and Howard Blue.

My wife Susan and I have donated our relief checks to several causes:  A local soup kitchen, Wounded Warriors, St. Jude, The Salvation Army, K-9 heroes, St. Joseph’s Indian School and  others.  We feel very fortunate to be able to do this, and encourage others who can, to do the same.

Alan Drysdale
Math teacher at Northport Jr. and Northport Middle for 33 years.

This winter I broke my record for catching the most mice in our basement – so as not to engender jealousy, I won’t say the exact number. One mouse got so impatient for a new trap that he came upstairs looking for me. 
I’ve also been carrying out my duties as Town Historian for Copake, NY. You can see some of my stories — about Liberace; Walt Whitman’s brother, Emile Griffith; murders; a one legged veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg; an alleged Nazi spy;  and the test flight of a plane for the Navy — all in little old in Copake. See the Copake History Facebook page to read more. Finally, I’m just about done with the writing of my book: The Man Who Sold Superman (Comic Books) to the World, and a publisher’s interested.

Howard Blue
Northport High School
Social Studies Department
                &
School 1129 Moscow
English Department

We are still looking for more submissions. Send your anecdotes to [email protected], and be sure to include your name, school you retired from and subject taught – if applicable. Photos are welcome!