On Sept. 1 last year, to celebrate my brother Bennett’s 99th birthday, 15 of his former students took him to lunch at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Willow Grove, where they reminisced for several hours. Ever since then, Bennett often said how much he was looking forward to his 100th birthday this Sept. 1, when the former students planned to celebrate his centenarian milestone. I told Bennett I would call Action News ahead of time and ask them to send out a reporter and camera operator to feature the event on TV, which they often do for 100th birthday events.
But on July 9 of this year, Bennett, who had a number of health issues in recent years, died at Rydal Park, a nursing home in Jenkintown. He had suffered a serious fall in his home several days earlier. Bennett lived in a house in Abington for 70 years, although we unsuccessfully urged him numerous times in recent years to move into an assisted living facility. (Our other siblings — Zelman, Albert and Lillian — all passed away within the past five years.)
Bennett raised three children — Nancy, Mark and Laurel — in that house with his late wife, Ruth, who had run Slom’s Uniform Store, her father Sam’s retail business in Willow Grove, for many years. (Survivors include many grandchildren, nieces and nephews.)
Bennett was proud of his military service in World War II. He was born in South Philadelphia but spent his adolescence in West Oak Lane. After graduating from Central High School in 1943, he signed up for the U.S. Navy and spent the last two years of the war on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific. He had some close calls but was never injured.
After the war, Bennett went to Penn State University’s main campus, where he earned a B.A. in journalism, a master’s degree in English literature and completed the course work for a doctorate but never finished the required dissertation. After a brief stint in the jukebox business, he took a significant cut in pay by becoming an English teacher at Abington High School and later at Council Rock High School in Newtown, Bucks County, and Penn State Abington. He was also the faculty adviser of the Council Rock school newspaper, The Indianite, which was routinely named “Best High School Newspaper in Pennsylvania” in competitions.
On a few occasions, Bennett asked me to talk to his students about a career in journalism. I have never met a more energetic, enthusiastic group of students. And he had them reading difficult novels like “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner, “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville and “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Having had difficulty with these iconic novels myself, I was extremely impressed by the students’ discussions about them.
Calling Bennett “old school” would be like saying that 76ers’ fans were mildly pleased over the recent signing of LeBron James. Bennett never had a computer or a cell phone, and his landline phone never had a message machine. His phone just rang and rang and rang. I am backwards myself when it comes to technology; I just bought my first cellphone a few months ago, and I never take it with me when I leave the house. But I am a virtual Elon Musk compared to Bennett.
Every single week for the past 30 years, Bennett would send me a handwritten letter in cursive commenting on that week’s articles in the Local. When the Local won journalism awards, he seemed to be just as excited as the actual recipients. He would also send me copies of letters mailed to him by former students, which literally filled up drawers in his living room.
Although Bennett, who also wrote 12 novels and travelogues, retired in the mid-1990s, he continued to receive these laudatory letters from former students. Many of the former students, scattered around the country, would come back to the area to be with their families for Thanksgiving, Christmas or other times of the year. Like clockwork, some would call Bennett and take him out to lunch or dinner at an area restaurant.
All of us have probably had great teachers during our school years, but it is hard for me to imagine any other teacher having more of an impact on so many young people than Bennett. Since he died, my inbox has been flooded with tributes, one more fulsome in its praise than the next. I wish I could run all of them here, but I would need at least 30,000 words to fit them in. But here is just a very small sampling:
• Leslie Fleming: “Bennett was deeply loved by me and so many of our classmates, not just in our class of 1976 but through all the years. I saw him on the evening of July 6. I told him that I loved him very much. He had a minute of clarity and said, ‘I love you very much, too.’ Then he said, ‘Hold my hand,’ so I did. I am going to treasure that.”
• Donna Carcaci Rhodes: “How fortunate was I to jump into one of the greatest experiences of my education with the best educator anyone could ever hope to have? Luckier than I can ever express, understood only by the students who shared it all with me. Remembering it all with love, gratitude, friendship and immense admiration for my dear friend, Bennett Fairorth.”
• Barry Gabler: “Bennett pulled us away from boring sentence structure lessons, mundane vocabulary use and traditional literary pieces. He pushed the envelope and frustrated the administration with his dark word lists, provocative literature and somewhat outrageous field trips and classroom discussions. He taught us how to think, be an individual, ask questions, be controversial and to go for the stars. He readied me for college and a professional life more than any of my other instructors.”
• Dave Davidson: After our luncheon for his 85th birthday, Bennett wrote me a letter saying it ‘was the most glorious four hours of his life’ and how he couldn’t believe that so many students from 35 years ago would take the time to travel and help him celebrate. I know of no other teacher who would get more joy out of that experience. Mr. Fairorth was a treasure … who proved the value a great teacher could have on a below-average student.”
• Sue Scott Driza: “I told Bennett in other letters about how his AP English and Journalism were the high points of high school for me. I have never laughed as hard as I did during those classes ... and for that he had my eternal gratitude.”
• Wayne A. Fisher: “Several years ago, Bennett responded to my Hanukkah card by asking if his high school English class helped me in college. I told him it helped me more than he could imagine. The first day of freshman English class, we were told that 80% of the class would not return for their sophomore year. Not only did I pass the course, but thanks to Bennett’s preparation, I found that I could handle the work with no problems. I will miss his correspondence!”
• Allen Hengst: “Bennett’s avant-garde concepts upset a clique of more conservative parents who launched countless crusades at the school board, trying to have him fired. Time after time, they failed because Bennett’s students invariably graduated with the skills necessary to excel in college. I join you in mourning the loss of this saintly scholar!”
Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
