Autumn Years Summer 2024

TEACHER MARK WRIGHT A Student of Lifelong Learning

By Kelly Parr

For retired high school English teacher Mark Wright, 77, of Demarest, the essence of life is a love of being a student. “Learning is growing, it is part of becom ing more of who I am,” he explains.

M ark describes his life as some thing lived in chapters—in some he is the teacher, in some the stu dent, and still others a bit of both. Themes of friendship, family, respect for others, joy, community and personal growth are seamlessly threaded through each. The older of two boys, Mark was born in Englewood and raised in Palisades Park. Mark’s father was a cabinet maker of English, Irish, German and Swedish descent who later became an accoun tant. His mother was Italian; her father emigrated from Sicily to New York City as a young man and attended the opera regularly and often had singers to his home. Both of Mark’s parents were tal ented musicians. Mark’s father played the saxophone by ear; his mother was a singer who performed solos in church and at school events. “My parents took music seriously,” explains Mark. “They knew it would open the world to me, and it did.” Mark Opening photo: Mark inside the pipe organ he has restored.

started taking piano lessons at age seven. His teacher was a brilliant older German woman, Mrs. Senta Winter, who lived in Teaneck. Her influence on Mark would prove to go far beyond music; it helped shape the teacher he became. Mrs. Win ter told Mark, “You only learn by de light.” “Music was like breathing to me,” explains Mark, “so this made perfect sense.” Experiencing this powerful con nection between joy and learning was something Mark aspired to help his stu dents do for decades. After graduating from Cliffside Park High School in 1965, where he was presi dent of the honor society and the key note graduation speaker, Mark attended New York University (NYU) on partial scholarship but could not afford to live on campus. He commuted to class; so by his sophomore year, Mark was eager to experience not living at home. NYU’s only established international exchange courses at the time were available to

Spanish majors, so Mark researched uni versities in England to which he could apply. Because he was an English major, Mark thought it might be possible to build his own junior year study abroad program that NYU would count for a full year of course credit. It was. Mark was accepted to the University of Keele in North Staffordshire and, in 1967, sailed on a freighter to England. Although he was the only American on campus that year, Mark soon had a pack of new friends and a keen aware ness that British students were ahead of him academically. He put in a lot of time at the library catching up. Mark spent his senior year at NYU student teaching in Palisades Park with his former high school English teacher. He loved the students and loved teach ing, so he applied for full-time positions in Palisades Park and at Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest. He received offers from both. Palisades Park

SUMMER 2024 I AUTUMN YEARS 45