It’ s a Wonderful Life!
By Tom Ryan
Tom Ryan delivering a Chapel talk to the Class of 2000, during their reunion visit in 2025.
It has been a wild ride! From late August of’ 71 when I was first called into Mr. Hume’ s office for an interview, I’ ve had the pleasure of teaching, guiding, and, perhaps, influencing, thousands of young men here at Saint David’ s.
When first approached by RoseMarie Alfieri – I taught her husband, Michael’ 75, by the way – I had an immediate deluge of names, faces, and events come to mind. Of course, students, co-teachers, teammates, classroom memories, notable events – in and out of Saint David’ s – popped up. I didn’ t know where to start. So, why not at the beginning?
My Uncle John told me from age five that I was going to be a teacher. He was a principal in Long Beach, and my future was sealed – at least according to him. When I graduated from Fordham’ s School of Education at 302 Broadway,( between Duane and Reade, BTW), I needed a job. My fiancé and future wife, Dolores, saw an ad in The New York Times. She made an appointment, and before I knew it, I was being interviewed by the bushy-browed David Hume. So much for the backstory.
But people are what makes Saint David’ s, Saint David’ s. And, that’ s where I’ m going.
In my classroom is a black and white photo – accent on black and white – of my first homeroom class in’ 71. Recently, a boy in my current class asked if I would remember him after he graduated. I, of course, said“ of course,” and proceeded to identify all 21 of the boys in the photo – with each name flooding my memory. I think of my boys in terms of events, and we have had a bunch of them.
We’ ve Jumped Rope for Heart, walked new Christmas toys to the NY Foundling in a snowstorm, helped to restore schools in Italy following an earthquake, brought portable DVDs to Sloan Kettering, built schools in Ethiopia, sent books to a devastated area of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, started a Little League program in Uganda, aided flood victims in Upstate New York, held fundraisers when Haiti was nearly destroyed, hosted and supported the Wounded Warriors program, entertained and furthered the cause for a new play area for the NY School for the Deaf, worked on ways to support St. Jude’ s Hospital, and held our annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for 59 years. These are just a few initiatives I have had the pleasure of working on with my boys over the years.
The key component of the above is the boys. Saint David’ s boys have never failed. Wracking my memory, I cannot think of a single cause that fell flat. Why? It is all about the boys. They are tireless, giving, and willing to reach out to, in many cases, the nameless and faceless people who struggle. No call was ever abandoned, midpoint. They bought supplies, purchased t-shirts, styled wristbands, served ice cream, packaged health supplies, brought in canned goods, and generally gave of themselves.
24 • Saint David’ s Magazine • 75th Anniversary Edition