How we miss you dear Bill! From my very first day teaching in 1963 when we met, your classroom back to back with my Spanish classroom at Westmont High School in Campbell, you showed what a creative, witty, and talented teacher you have always been. Before language teachers had language labs, you created your own adaptation. So that students could practice listening with headphones and repeating recorded phrases non-stop, you strung a looped cassette tape on hooks around the back of the room. This way you were free to work with one group of students as others separately practiced French on their own. At lunch time we, your devoted teacher buddies, sat at our favorite table in the Faculty Cafeteria and awaited a new clever Bill witticism or invention of the week. Who could forget the time you posted on the lunchroom wall the complete copy of the school’s yearly teacher assessment form. Juxtaposed next to it were the names of three notorious historic figures and how they were evaluated according to school district standards. All three, Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler scored with perfect scores in all categories including: “performance, well-dressed, disciplined, knowledgeable of subject matter and effective use of available materials…” Once when we collaborated on a field trip taking our students via a school bus to San Francisco and a Basque restaurant, you had me laughing consistently. Who could forget your version of a sign we saw on a Chinese building we passed walking through China Town: “Look, a corchon fookie factory.”
You were an outstanding asset working with students enrolled in a Curriculum Course I taught at Stanford University in the late 1990’s. Those graduate students so appreciated your help and knowledge as you observed them during their practice teaching sessions in schools throughout the County. Those students, and I, loved your special sample class of teaching the Gaelic language using current teaching techniques without using any English! Not only a consummate creative and professional teacher, besides teaching French you also taught Spanish and German, you made the best French crepes ever! Once in your Santa Cruz home, you and Lynda served brunch to several of us and made each crepe to order according to our individual preference. What a tour de force!
Your visits up here in Shingle Springs were the best! Along with our other Spanish teacher amigo, Ramiro, we had many good conversations and laughs. A photo of you atop a vintage tractor at Lava Cap Winery in Placerville, validates your wonderful sense of humor! Before my dear husband passed in 2014, Chuck would sometimes yell out: “Call Bill. Tell him to come up here, right now.”
The local Sacramento radio station has a nightly program featuring Irish music. As I listen, I immediately think of you and how your Irish heritage meant so much to you and your children. How I miss you dear Bill. You were such a wonderful friend and have left a deep void for all of us!
Margaret Azevedo Franklin
November 30, 2022
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