Today, we say goodbye to our teacher, cousin, and friend, Hugh Spagnuolo, whose 44-year career at Eastern High School touched nearly every student attending. If you had to write a theme on certain Wednesdays, he started that. If you read a famous paperback each semester, he made that happen. If you saw the school movie and wrote an analysis--that’s his inspiration. On the school bus a girl asked, “Is everyone in the world writing a theme this Wednesday?” Yes, they are. Thanks, Mr. Spag.
He did 44 years of endless battle against the mediocre. To “teacher-proof” key grammar lessons, he wrote and printed Eastern’s book of grammar worksheets. During the year the textbooks didn’t arrive, he altered the original vocabulary of the Edgar Allan Poe stories so that everyone at every grade-level began an exciting year together. His legendary vocabulary lists contained universal concepts, not just spelling.
All this by the force of his intellect and personality. There weren’t laws or permissions or money; he made things happen. Did you ever go to Stratford, or Detroit’s Institute of Arts, the Hillberry or Riverwalk theaters? Do you remember the 88 works of art in Eastern’s hallways? Have you read Canto? Thank you, Mr. Spagnuolo. Were you lucky enough to see a group-reading of The Body of an American, Bertold Brecht, or Carl Sandburg? His Spoon River Anthology won the State Championship in 1968.
A student lucky enough to take his World Lit class will remember Room 326 and the seats on risers, and Rembrandt’s “Man in the Golden Helmet.” And Pachelbel’s Canon in C major. Room 326 became an amphitheater of intellectual challenge. Did you memorize from Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English? Or Robert Frost or Baudelaire? Or the Raven? None of this without Hugh Spagnuolo, who, by the sheer weight of his knowledge and personality elevated an entire school for generations.
A man always shy of praise, yet in 1983 he was personally called by President Ronald Reagan, asking if he would consent to being the National Teacher of the Year to inspire the entire country.
But tragedy haunted the family. The murder of his brother Jerry forever kept him in Lansing for his father and mother. And vision problems ended his brilliant achievements as a painter. And Parkinsons ended his career in 2005. Only once did a friend hear him say: “I think I’m happy now.”
Leonard Cohen sings: “Hold me in your heart for a while.” But for his cousins and friends and extended family of students, we hold him in our hearts for a lifetime. That’s where he still lives, this brilliant, inspiring, remarkable man.
Perhaps no scholar alive knew more about Shakespeare’s Hamlet than Hugh Spagnuolo. His analyses of the human condition in Elsinore Castle are legendary. How fitting, then, to use Horatio’s goodbye for one of our great souls: “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” Amen.
Predeceased by parents Floyd and Mary (Derose) Spagnuolo, brother Jerry. Survived by cousins Marie Fata and Jeannie Cleary, Paula and Judie Mirabelli, Margaret Weeks, Joe Dionise, Virginia DeLuca, Carol Dionise, Joe Derose, Judy and Darrel Swain, Patty Bates, Diane Ignatowski, and friends Mark Hahn, Carol Harding, Mary Leeman.
In lieu of flowers--a contribution to the Greater Lansing Food Bank.
Arrangements are by the Estes-Leadley Greater Lansing Chapel. Online condolences may be left for his family at www.EstesLeadley.com.
