Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/97177
Ingrid Dorer Fitzpatrick Director of Academic Initiatives | History and Social Studies Teacher ���Dr. D���s love for us was apparent each day of the 51 years he spent at Latin.��� ���Ingrid Dorer Fitzpatrick, Director of Academic Initiatives, History and Social Studies Teacher 26 Our lives intersected twice before we finally met at Latin 34 years ago. For over 20 years we shared a classroom, for a decade an office. My longtime colleague, mentor and friend, Dick Dolezal was present at the most significant mileposts of my family life, from my wedding and Jessica���s birth in the 1980s to my mom���s funeral just four years ago. Dick even joined us for unlikely adventures, among them a midnight boat excursion on a restless Lake Michigan to watch the Perseid meteor shower, an excursion from which only he emerged unscathed. The rest of us, even Ellie Lambrakis, remembered our motion sickness more vividly than the celestial display. Obviously, there���s no easy way to express what Dick meant to me, let alone to capture what he meant to us collectively at Latin. But in the days following his passing, as I prepared for our LIFE program with Mawi Asgedom, I ran across an acknowledgement in which Mawi pays tribute to Cornel West. As Mawi reflected on the incredible journey that took him from war-torn Ethiopia to his graduation from Harvard, as he identified the angels who helped him along the way, these words resonated with him: ���We are who we are because someone loved us, cared for us and believed in us.��� L AT I N M AGAZINE I suspect many of you already know where this is going. How could you not? Dr. D���s love for us was apparent each day of the 51 years he spent at Latin. Expressed through his loyalty to the school, his devotion to his students, his love of literature and the high standards he set for us; manifest through gestures as small as jelly beans and as great as his presence here in this theater at virtually every Latin play, dance and music program, we experienced, and drew strength from, Dick���s love. From the moment we became part of the Latin community, Dick Dolezal cared for us, in much the same way as he cared for his parishioners in Wisconsin. Small wonder that Bryan Jackson���s memories of his first day as a lower school teacher at Latin include Richard���s call of welcome. How many of us, I wonder, remember that moment when Dick���s care first made us feel special? Dick Dolezal also believed in us, often when we could scarcely muster up the courage to believe in ourselves. For example, I���ve always been afraid to speak publicly, at least when it involves a podium and a microphone. So the first time I was asked to speak at a Latin