Revered math teacher was class act

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In Thomas J. Maguire’s classroom at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School, there was just a blackboard, a yardstick and him, and that’s how he liked it for 42 years.

“I have a tendency to make my classroom kind of like a home. I have rocking chairs, rugs, posters and books for the kids. Tom had nothing except the board,” said Paul O’Brien, ND-BG English Department chairman. “I said to Tom one day, ‘Why don’t you put some posters up in case the kids find you boring, at least they’ll have something to look at.’ He looked at me and said ‘Listen, I’m the whole show. They can take it or leave it.’ Which was perfect for him, because he was the whole show. I never heard of a kid who was ever bored in his class. He was a great teacher and a great performer.”

Maguire died Dec. 30 after a period of heart problems. He had just completed the first half of his 42nd year teaching math at ND-BG. On the school’s Web site, www.nd-bg.org, former and current students, colleagues and friends have posted 134 comments honoring the teacher’s memory.

“I loved Mr. Maguire in the classroom, but also on the stage!” wrote ND-BG senior Kelsey Schuhle. “I got to know Maguire most after being with him on the stage in the ND-BG Fall Musicals! . . . He’s most likely the ONLY person who still tap dances and sings at his age!”

Courtney Martin, class of 1996, credits Maguire with her success at college.

“He was key in allowing me to get into the college of my choice. My math skills were lacking and he was more than happy to write a letter on my behalf, but I had to give a little too,” she wrote. “Twice a week I stayed after school for extra help from Mr. Maguire.”

Maguire’s long tenure at the school almost didn’t happen. O’Brien, who began teaching with Maguire in 1975 when the Notre Dame girls school combined with the Bishop Gibbons boys school, said his longtime friend told him he struggled his first year at teaching until he learned how to discipline students.

“He was at Bishop Gibbons in 1967, very large classrooms, and he didn’t really know how to control them. At the end of the year, he was advised by administration that he might want to seek other jobs, and he said, ‘No, I’d like to come back and teach, things will be different,’ ” O’Brien said. “The following year he came back and if they blinked they got a detention. He ran a really tight ship, but that was the start of a great, great success. I think he had the highest record of regents scholarships in the area.”

Christine Baseel, ND-BG Development and Alumni Affairs director and a class of 1996 graduate, said she had Maguire as a freshman and as a junior. Baseel, who would later go on to teach Spanish at the school, said Maguire often used humor in his discipline of students, something she later tried to emulate. She said he also showed remarkable discipline in forcing himself to teach despite intense illness, especially in one incident that became legendary among her classmates.

“We were sitting in class and he was extremely ill. He had three sweaters on, three wool sweaters nonetheless, and he was still cold,” she said. “He turned away from the board and his body just kind of like moved in a motion like he was going to be sick, and we told him ‘Mr. Maguire, you have to sit down,’ and he just basically told us all to leave him alone and we were going to learn math today. He turned back to the board and a couple minutes later he got sick in the front of the classroom, wiped his mouth quick like all he’d done was just cough, and turned back to the chalkboard and continued right where he left off. I was stunned. He would not sit down. Basically he told us there was nothing more important than us learning math that day.”

Ritch Harrigan, a social studies teacher at ND-BG in his third-year teaching, said he learned some of his professional work ethic watching Maguire.

“It wouldn’t be uncommon for Tom to stay with a student who was having difficulty with math until 5 p.m. on a Friday. Most people would be long out of the building by then, but Tom would still be working with the student, helping them to learn a difficult concept,” he said.

Maguire’s death at age 65 came as a shock to his friends and students. O’Brien said he had lunch with his friend about a week before he died.

“When I was at lunch with him, I didn’t think he looked that good. Some people thought he did, but I found out [Saturday] that he was extremely chilled most of the day, which is a symptom of congestive heart failure,” O’Brien said. “I gave him his Christmas president, a DVD of Broadway musicals and tickets to the summer Adirondack Theatre Festival. He said, ‘Oh, I’ll bring yours on Monday.’ And of course Monday never came, but [Saturday] one of our teachers was in the house helping his cousin sort through some things and in my mailbox was his Christmas present to us, tickets to the Spectrum Theatre.”

Maguire’s family asks those who wish to remember the man in a special way to contribute to the American Heart Association, 440 New Karner Road, Albany. Current and former students, parents and friends are invited to the funeral services Monday at 11 a.m. in the ND-BG gymnasium, where a Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated. Relatives and friends are also invited to call today from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Dreis Funeral Home, 208 N. Allen St., Albany.