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C ANO N- MAC SC HO OL D IS TR IC T News
B
ernard Singer was a long-time
instructor in the Canon-McMillan
School District teaching electronics and
shop, and also technology education.
Although he and his wife Marguerite never had children of their own,
they were very giving in many ways to
young people. They were generous to
both California University of Pennsylvania and Carlow University. And they
shared themselves with Mr. Singer’s
students, his colleagues on the faculty
of Canon-McMillan High School, and
sometimes, even their families.
One such student was Vincent Crider, a member of the Class of 1966. It all
started when “As a student, I wandered
into electric shop class and he told me,
‘If you can build this electric motor, you
can get into my class,’ ” remembered
Mr. Crider of his first meeting with his
teacher.
Eventually Mr. Crider worked for
Westinghouse, RCA, Bell Atlantic and
retired from Motorola in 2005 after 19
years of service.
“At Bernie’s request, I would speak
to and teach new electronic technologies to his classes when I was in town,”
said Mr. Crider.
Mr. Crider and his wife Connie
never gave birth to their own children,
but they had a very loving family that
included a daughter, Katherine, known
as Kate, adopted from China when she
was 20 months old. Mr. and Mrs. Singer
were Kate’s godparents. “They were really more like grandparents,” says Kate.
When the Criders decided to adopt
Kate, the Singers were very supportive,
although the Criders were not young
parents-to-be. When the Criders traveled to China to adopt little Kate, the
Singers were at the Pittsburgh airport to
see them off and then to welcome them
back with their new daughter.
“Bernie told me that we were not
too old to become parents, and they
weren’t too old to become godparents,”
said Mr. Crider. “We were closer than
family.”
That was the beginning of a long relationship between the Singers and what
would become the Crider family.
So it wasn’t a great surprise when
Mr. Singer gave some of his proud
36 Canon-Mac
possessions to Mr. Crider for safekeeping to be given to Kate when she was
older.
They were items that had belonged
to Mr. Singer’s older brother, Norman.
Norman Singer was a great baseball
fan and was especially fond of his idol
Babe Ruth. On a farm nea