Our Teachers We Remember and Honor
	WILLARD DOLMAN 1924 - 2015 Willard J. Dolman, of Stirling, N.J., died on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, in Scotch Plains, N.J. He was 90. Willard was born in Dupont, Pa., on Sept. 22, 1924, to the late Margaret (Kasa) and Willard T. Dolman. He lived in Pennsylvania before moving to Bloomfield, N.J., in 1952, and eventually to Stirling in 1956. Willard was a graduate of Dupont High School Class of 1943. Upon graduation,Willard served as a Tech 4 in the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II. He was honorably discharged in 1946. Willard attended Catholic University and achieved his bachelor's degree from Scranton University in 1952. He achieved a masters from Seton Hall University in 1957, and continued post graduate studies at Seton Hall. Willard began his career in education as a Latin and English teacher in the Long Hill Township School District in 1952. In 1956, he began a 44- year career in the Bernards Township School District, serving as teacher, guidance counselor, guidance director (Ridge H.S.), and district director of pupil personnel services before he retired in 1999. He was an author of several books, including an autobiography which he wrote mainly for his grandchildren. He was a communicant of St. Vincent de Paul R.C. Church in Stirling, where he served as a lector for many years. Penny Pitt (Scheer) I remember him as a very kind and wise man. I guess the whole guidance department at Ridge consisted of Mr. Dolman and Mrs. Hull back in our time. It must be a huge operation by now... Judi Logan (Welch) Sad news, Penny, but at 90, I have to say he had a long life -- and he had a positive influence on many, myself included. I spent a lot of time helping in the Guidance Department during our HS years and loved both Mr. Dolman and Mrs. Hull. Fond memories. I miss them both! Liz DeBlock (Duckrow) I am sorry to hear of his death and remember with great fondness many visits to the guidance office to either kneel on the floor for Mrs. Hull to see if my skirt touched or just chatting with Mr. Dolman. I wonder now if these visits someone influenced my career choice to be a school counselor? P.S. In 38 years I have never had occasion to ask anyone to kneel on the floor :-) Linda Johnson (Petersen) Sad news about Mr. Dolman, but I was pleased to hear that he had a long life. He was so helpful in guiding me to Waynesburg College, which is now Waynesburg University. I was there with Janice Whitley and Phil Parker, so he must have influenced their choice of college, too. He was a good man and educator! Liz, I had to visit Mrs. Hull, too, for a skirt length check and was sent home to change. How silly, especially. when a few years later we were all wearing mini-skirts. Do I recall correctly that I might have had her as an English teacher, maybe sophomore year? I think we had to read Pride and Prejudice? Anyone remember that class? Linda (Johnson) Petersen Pat Murphy (Steege) Mr. Dolman and a daughter went to the Ridge High Class of 1962 reunion. He was in a wheelchair (My sister Kathy wasn't able to attend). He lived by Stirling Lake. I spent some time swimming in that lake with friends and went right by his home. Linda Johnson Petersen, I also had Mrs. Hull for English. It had to be my senior year as Inge sat next to me. Do you remember him in class? Phil Parker Linda, you are correct. Mr. Dolman’s assistance was very helpful to me. Of course, I also was saddened to hear of his passing. Barbara Block (Jocher) I remember Mr Dolman as a very patient and kind man who actually listened to what you had to say in order to advise you in your future endeavors. A lost art, I think.
	DORIS MAY BERMAN HEDDEN HANKINSON 1917 - 2015 Doris May Berman Hedden Hankinson died Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, in Attleboro Nursing Home, Langhorne. She was 97. Doris graduated from Bernards High School and then Newark State Teachers College, graduating in 1937. She taught for three years in the Maplewood - South Orange school district and then for Bernards Township system for many more years, retiring in 1979 after teaching at Maple Avenue School, Cedar Hill School and Oak Street School in Basking Ridge, N.J. "Mom always had a smile on her face and was able to make everyone happy around her," her sons said. She loved books and read every day of her life. She and her second husband travelled extensively through Europe and the U.S., visiting family in California and Georgia. Always with a spirit of adventure she was only 20 when she and her girlfriends drove from New Jersey to California camping along the way. Joan Wagner (Weller) Wow. I fondly remember our year with her at the Millington Baptist Church. She graduated from Bernards HS and Newark State Teachers College.She had 2 sons, Timothy and Richard. Barbara Block (Jocher) Mrs. Hedden lived in my neighborhood and in the fourth grade at Millington Baptist Church all was right with the world. We had a lovely room on the second floor of a building on the property with windows all around. I always thought of her as my second Mom. The Heddens had a black and while collie and we had a sable and white collie which my parents arranged to unite, and I very well remember the night that the puppies were born. I heard my Mom going down and up the basement stairs again and again. I kept calling out "how many"? Her last retort was "Seven and I'm going to bed." In the morning there were eight. The eighth was Lisa, the dog with whom I grew up. We were constant companions and the best of friends. We had to put her down in my senior year - a very sad day. One other thing that I vividly remember from fourth grade was running in from the playground and tripping on the cement steps at the entry to the building .....and having the breath knocked out of me. I could not breathe and I was so frightened. Obviously, it resolved. Isn't it wonderful how resilient we are in our youth? Somebody said "how did Mr Dolman get that old"? And I ask, how did we get this old? [My answer, hopefully, is by living life, helping others and sharing the gifts we've been given with others - Editor]
	JOHN LEO WENDLOCHER 1929 - 2012 John Leo Wendlocher passed away on Oct. 4, 2012. John was born in Morristown, N.J., on April 19, 1929, and lived most of his life in the Cedar Knolls section of Hanover Township. Most recently, he was a resident of Franciscan Oaks Life Care Community in Denville, N.J. A 1947 graduate of Bayley High School in Morristown, he served in the Air Force during the Korean War and received his M.A. from Montclair State in 1958. He was employed by the Bernards Township Board of Education as a teacher from 1956 to 1965 and then as school psychologist until his retirement in 1994.
	ALFRED F. TAYLOR 1923 - 2007 Alfred Forrest Taylor, 83, of Brevard died Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007, at Ivy Hill Health and Retirement. He was the son of the late Robert M. Taylor and Helen Suiter Taylor. He was an Army veteran of World War II, a retired school teacher, and a member of the Brevard-Davidson River Presbyterian Church.
	ALFRED T. PAULSEN 1927 - 2007 Alfred T. Paulsen, 80, of Rockford, formerly of New Jersey, was called to be with the Lord on Friday, Nov. 30, 2007, in P.A. Petersen Center for Health. Alfred was born Nov. 22, 1927, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Alfred A. and Mary Ellen (O'Dwyer) Paulsen. He met Janyce C. Heuer in New Jersey and married her on Sept. 28, 1957. Alfred served in the Merchant Marines and the Army Air Corps. He received his bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and his master's degree in Spanish from Middlebury College School of Foreign Language in Vermont. He taught foreign languages in the New Jersey public school system for 36 years and retired in 1990 from Whippany Park High School as chairman of the Foreign Language department. He was a commanding officer of the Navy League Sea Cadets in Somerset County, N.J., was involved in several musical ensembles throughout his life both as a singer and an instrumentalist and was a member of St. Mary Oratory.
	NORRIS BIRNBAUM 1919 - 2006 Mr. Birnbaum, of Basking Ridge, died May 17 following a long illness. He was 86. Wherever Norris Birnbaum went, music followed. A cerebral, dignified man of the classics, Mr. Birnbaum also became a vigorous musical institution in Bernards Township. But that was more his destiny than his intention. A music teacher at Ridge High School for 34 years, Mr. Birnbaum built a reputation that was said to draw parents of musically talented children to the district, his wife, Ruth, said. "He was a natural. It was a calling, I think," said Ruth Birnbaum, 79. "He impressed people." As the founder of the well-received Somerset Hills Symphony and the Somerset Hills Concert Band, Mr. Birnbaum, who played a number of woodwind instruments, brought citified style - and well-known talent - to the local music scene. "He just defined music in the Basking Ridge area for many years," said his son, Alan Birnbaum, 54, of Hampton. Born on Coney Island, N.Y., he was a precocious child. After skipping several half grades, Mr. Birnbaum enrolled at the City College of New York at the age of 15. He studied at Columbia University to be a schoolteacher, but his real gift seemed to be forming orchestral bands. When the war came, he enlisted and conducted a band in what was then called the Army Air Force. News of his musical abilities reached the ears of Glenn Miller, who drafted him to arrange for his famous Army Air Force Band. When he eventually met Ruth, that band experience scored big points. "I just adored Glenn Miller," Ruth Birnbaum recalled. After the war, Mr. Birnbaum, who was fluent in French and German, worked a stint as a translator for the United Nations. He later moved to New Jersey to work as a music therapy instructor at the Veterans Administration Hospital, in Lyons. It was there, as a popular young bachelor, that he met Ruth Jones, a cadet nurse. "He was quite gregarious," remembered longtime friend Bertram Levinstone, who worked as an Army medical officer at the hospital. "No conversation went on without leading to music." The two men shared a love of music, and they performed frequently for the psychiatric patients. "It was just background music for many of them," said Levinstone, 84. "The attention spans of the veterans wasn't so great. It was therapy of a kind." In 1960, Mr. Birnbaum joined the founding faculty at Ridge High School. When he retired in 1994, he was the last of the original staff. In 1994, he and his wife suffered a devastating tragedy when their son, Eric, 45, was slain while working as a musician in South Africa. As his father's student both in English and in band, Alan Birnbaum remembered a "dynamic leader" who was driven to extract top-notch performances and had "little patience" for students without talent or the will to excel. "I wouldn't call him a slave driver, but pretty close," said Alan Birnbaum. And yet, his father's passion was effective. "We played way over our heads," said Alan Birnbaum, who still plays semi-professionally. Mr. Birnbaum also was known for having a wealth of knowledge - a "walking encyclopedia and dictionary," according to his son. "He was what they call a teacher's teacher," recalled Ruth Birnbaum. "If (other teachers) wanted to know something, rather than look it up, they would go to him." A voracious reader with a penchant for etymology, Mr. Birnbaum could easily be found at home listening to Bach or Beethoven while reading a dictionary. "He had dictionaries all around the house," his wife said. His son joked Mr. Birnbaum was known for scholarliness, but not exactly for handiness or brawn. "The joke was one time he took up a hammer, and we all laughed at him," Alan Birnbaum said. In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Birnbaum is survived by two daughters, Andrea R. May and Leah A. Fritz, and two brothers, Franklin M. and Perry. Ken Ballinger I fondly remember Mr. Birnbaum: I bet few remember he also was a Sanskrit scholar in his college experience, talk about well rounded! His gift to me was to talk a nervous non-musician into getting on stage my junior year for Pirates of Penzance. He was so calm and assured that I think most of us on stage were surprised we even did it! We did have real musicians in our class like Sally Kolding, Carol Krebs, heck the entire band! I will miss him.
	EVE NARDONE 1924 - 2004 EVE NARDONE 80, of Boynton Beach, FL, died Friday, June 18th at Hospice of Palm Beach County after a long bout with cancer. She was born in Bernardville, NJ, and was the daughter of the late Guisto and Theresa Nardone. She attended Bernards High School, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Montclair State Teachers College in 1945 and her masters degree in Library Science from Rutgers University in 1965. She taught in the Bernards Township School system until her retirement in June 1980 and her subsequent move to Florida. Miss Nardone was a volunteer for the Auxiliary of Bethesda Memorial Hospital for a number of years prior to her illness.
	PAULA GROSSMAN 1919 - 2003 Paul Monroe Grossman was born in Brooklyn, NY. He grew up in New Jersey, graduated with an A.B. in 1941 from the University of Newark (now called Rutgers), and spent the Second World War in the U.S. Army. He then went to Columbia University where he earned an M.A. and a Professional Diploma in Music Education (S.M.E.) in 1947. In 1949 he married Ruth Keshen, and he spent the next 21 years as a music teacher in public schools in North Dakota, Montana, upstate New York and in 1957 he finally returned to New Jersey to teach at Cedar Hill Elementary School in in the town of Basking Ridge. In 1971 Paul became Paula, and was suspended as a teacher. She sued, and lost. She fought the dismissal to the US Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. However since she had been declared to be 'disabled,' she eventually won a disability pension. She did stay in the same small town, and was well known as a transsexual. During the years of litigation, she became something of a celebrity, appeared on television, the guest of Johnny Carson and David Frost. She gave lectures all over the eastern United States. She supplemented her income playing as a musician in night clubs. When it was over, she wrote A Handbook for Transsexuals, which is long out of print. She was never allowed to teach in a school again. She stayed with her wife until she died in 2003. Ken Ballinger Paul Grossman was an early influence on me too. I remember how exciting it was to sing the first chord in Cedar Hill Cafeteria with 4 parts. I heard about his transformation by looking at the back page of the Stars and Stripes newspaper that was dropped into our position by helicopter in Vietnam. There I am in the jungle looking at my 5th grade music teacher’s picture and his name was now Paula. I doubt if any other news was dateline Basking Ridge in the history of the Stars and Stripes!