Mr. Garrity, my elementary school art teacher, died yesterday at the age of 90. His obituary told me a lot about his professional life. I didn’t know he had his work, mostly sculpture, in several museums and in the Capitol building in Harrisburg. My memories of him go back over fifty years, so they could be a little clouded.
I remember he was tall, probably the tallest man I had met at that point in my life. I remember him being passionate about teaching us art. I remember him being gentle and I don’t recall angry words coming from his mouth. I remember that his mom taught in one of our elementary schools. I remember that he was single. I remember that he hated coloring books! He didn’t think that art should be “between the lines”.
As a teacher, he was an adventurer. He didn’t like being tied to the classroom. He was my teacher at the Lincoln Building and he would often take us down to Trout Creek and under the Main Street Bridge to draw. He taught in all five of our elementary schools: Lincoln, Roosevelt, Peters, Walnutport, and Slatedale. I’m sure he took the kids in those other schools somewhere equally interesting to explore art.
I can recall two indoor activities. One, was dipping Autumn leaves in some sort of hot liquid and attaching them to paper. It smelled so good. I can smell them right now. Ahhh. The second was paper mache. I think that was his favorite indoor project because I can remember doing that a lot. Come to think of it, that smelled really good too!
We were lucky to have him in our school district. He probably got the kids who had some artistic talent off to a great start. For those of us without, he taught us to explore, to think, and not to worry about convention.
Mr. Garrity was a wonderful art teacher. I hope his next life, whatever that may be, is filled with sculpture, and painting and paper mache, and that he is never forced to stay within the lines.
A Semi-retired Kind of Life 