West Boylston High School - Lions Roar Yearbook (West Boylston, MA)

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The Class of 1980 Dedicates This Issue of the Lion’s Roar To the Memory of NICHOLAS CECCHINI “Oh, Chips, I’m so glad you are what you are . . . Schoolmastering’s so different, so important, don’t you think? To be influencing those who are going to grow up and matter to the world . . -James Hilton, in “Good-bye, Mr. Chips” Nicholas Cecchini was a teacher of distinc- tion and an extraordinary man. For twenty years, until his retirement last June, he was a vital part of West Boylston High School: a soft-spoken and unfailingly patient voice of reason, an understanding friend whose daily example inspired deep respect, admiration and affection in those around him. Like Mr. Chips, the subject of James Hil- ton’s touching little novel about the life and death of a beloved schoolmaster, Mr. Cec- chini “had quiet and gentle manners.’’ He was a kindly, compassionate, uncommonly decent human being whose views, though sometimes old-fashioned, never seemed out of date be- cause they were “so thoroughly honest; and because — because his eyes were brown and he looked charming when he smiled.” Like Mr. Chips, he taught and often quoted Latin — a supposedly “dead” language that he somehow made vibrant, a springboard for modern lessons. “Student motivation comes from the youngsters’ seeing a teacher’s re- spect for his subject,’’ he once said. “A teacher must also have an understanding of the young and a willingness to listen to them . . . If everything is left in the classroom, it is not worthwhile. A subject should leave the classroom. From the classics he revered, and particu- larly by personal example, he imparted to class after class of Latin and Spanish students a high regard for words, for knowledge, and especially for their fellow man. He was, in every sense, a humanist. His warmth and humility moved us. It made us better people. To us he was St. Nick, and not only at Christmas. If we considered him virtue personified, he 14