Former students honor Freehold English teacher
Members of class of ’59 gather at high school for dedication of tree
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Glenn Cashion, a member of the Freehold Regional High School class of 1959, reads from Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” during a ceremony honoring Rodney Sheratsky, who taught at the school in Freehold Borough from 1955-59.

FREEHOLD — Some teachers teach and others leave lasting legacies. So it was with Rodney E. Sheratsky, of Fort Lee, who died in March at the age of 71.

Sheratsky took his first teaching job in 1955 at Freehold Regional High School (now Freehold High School) at the age of 21. Although records will show that the eager young man was an English teacher for many area students, those students who were taught by him from 1955-59 would tell a far different story.

Judge Frances Rothschild came from Los Angeles to participate in the dedication of a tree on the grounds of Freehold High School, Freehold Borough. The tree and monument honor the memory of the late Rodney Sheratsky, who taught English at the school 50 years ago.

So impressed were his students by his teaching methods and his unusual but highly effective style, that five members of the Freehold Regional High School class of 1959 formed a committee to establish a scholarship in Sheratsky’s honor after his death.

Among the graduates’ goals was to provide a lasting living legacy for their former teacher. They decided to plant a tree on the school grounds at Broadway and Robertsville Road as a reminder of the place where Sheratsky made his mark.

“We needed to do something to serve him as he served us,” said Ron Griffiths, one of Sheratsky’s former students. “But we wanted more than money. We wanted his name permanently on the grounds of the school. This tree will last over 100 years, and it helps us to feel that we have done something to help remember Rodney.”

Griffiths said the tree planting was done by local landscaper and friend George Taylor. A ceremony was held Sept. 23 to dedicate the tree.

The Rodney Sheratsky Scholarship Fund was represented by former students Ron Griffiths, of Freehold; Glenn Cashion, of Middletown; Dr. Jerry Hantman, of Baltimore, Md.; and Judge Frances Rothschild, of Los Angeles. The fifth member of the board, Tom Bachman, could not attend the ceremony.

Griffiths, who is retired from a position with the Department of Navy Personnel, said Sheratsky was the “first teacher to get me to think. He opened up a lot of doors to us through art, literature and drama.”

Griffiths said Sheratsky, who left Freehold after the class of 1959 graduated, made an impact on his students that has stayed with them over the years.

“He taught us not by memorizing things — you couldn’t get away with that,” Griffiths said. “His tests required that you think in order to find the answer to the questions.”

Griffiths said Sheratsky encouraged his students to form their own opinions about the material they were learning.

The students remembered taking one trip to Princeton to hear Robert Frost read his poetry and another outing to the Strand theater in downtown Freehold to see the film of Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick.”

Griffiths said Sheratsky was named “favorite teacher” at the class of 1959’s 45-year reunion in 2004. He noted that Sheratsky was thrilled to hear that.

Griffiths said when members of the class learned of Sheratsky’s death, e-mails were “flying back and forth” from former students who wanted to do something to remember him. They started the scholarship fund and collected $500, which was presented to a member of the class of 2005 in June.

Rothschild spoke about letters she had written to Sheratsky over the years. She said she told her former teacher about the books she was reading and the classics she was rereading. She credited Sheratsky for her love of reading and for being the impetus behind her hobby of collecting rare books.

Freehold High School Principal Linda Jewell attended the tree dedication and said it is not easy to get youngsters to understand the value of tradition. She was glad to see tradition in the form of the former students’ dedication to their teacher.

Jewell said that although she did not know Sheratsky, she felt he would be “greatly honored at the feelings emanating from his students. This is the real deal.”

Cashion, an executive at AT&T, read from letters his former classmates sent to him when they learned that Sheratsky had died.

“Rodney meant so much to me,” Cashion said. “What better testimony to his life than to hear comments from his students?”

“No other teacher has left such a memorable impression on my life. He had a profound effect on my college performance and my teaching career,” one person wrote.

Another said Sheratsky was “the most important intellectual influence in my life.”

Other students remembered the lighter side of the man.

“Rodney beings back lots of memories ... especially the bow tie and an obsession with Marlene Dietrich.”

He was a “dapper” dresser and always wore a bow tie, according to his students.

“His enthusiasm was contagious,” wrote another.

To conclude his memories, Cashion read a scene from Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” in which Emily says good-bye to Grover’s Corners, remembering the smallest, but most wonderful things like her mother’s sunflowers, food and coffee, newly ironed dresses, sleeping and waking up.

Sheratsky’s memorial is a mark of his passage through Freehold and through life. It stands as a legacy for the students who passed through his life and for today’s students who did not know him, but who may read about him and how he made an impact on people who walked the halls of their school a half-century ago.

The monument marker contains a quote from Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” which describes two roads that diverged in a yellow wood.

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.