This year marks the end of one of our most beloved teacher’s Benet career. After forty-­seven years Mr. Chuck Schumacher will be retiring from the Academy. His years of dedicated, inspirational service have left a lasting impression on the school, it’s teachers, and his students.

Mr. Schumacher began his teaching career at Benet as a math teacher in 1969 after a year of student teaching. Ever since then, he has taught math and has also worn many other hats within the Benet community. He has been a counselor, a Director of Guidance, a basketball coach, a football coach, Logos retreat leader, Bowling club moderator, and a volunteer and assistant moderator during countless service outings.

After forty-­seven years of teaching at Benet Mr. Schumacher says he still enjoys coming into school on Monday mornings. He said in an interview, “So many of my acquaintances in life tell me how much they hate Sunday evenings, they get the blues thinking about going to their job the next day on Monday because they just hate going in. And I can’t think of any time that I have ever not enjoyed coming in. I am in a profession that I have been blessed knowing that every day I come in I really enjoy what I do”.

He says the two main things he has enjoyed the most about teaching at Benet are the students he teaches and the colleagues he works with. He believes that working with young people keeps him feeling young as well. During his forty-­seventh year teaching career he says he has learned from both students and colleagues and continues to learn even as he advances in years at the

Academy. From hearing suggestions from his students and observing the teaching methods of his colleagues he feels he has improved as a teacher. He said, “I’ve always claimed that everything good that I’ve done in the classroom. I’ve stolen from something good that my colleagues have done”.  During the year Mr. Schumacher spent student teaching at Benet he not only observed other arithmetic teachers but teachers of all subjects so that he could learn from their teaching styles as well.

Mr. Schumacher’s outstanding instruction in the classroom, strong faith, and service to the educational community, earned him the Joseph L. Imesch Award for Excellence in Teaching. He describes receiving this award as very humbling experience. To honor him further, the school declared January 28, 2015, to be Mr. Chuck Schumacher Day. This was one of his many achievements as a teacher.  When asked what he would describe as his greatest accomplishment, however, it had nothing to do with mathematics.

Mr. Schumacher feels very blessed to teach in a Catholic school where he may begin each class with prayer. He said in an interview “…my greatest accomplishment is being able to share my faith with students and having them still remember that, even though they’ve forgotten the math, they still remember that years and years after they graduate”.

Another notable aspect of Mr. Schumacher’s career is the community service he has done with students. He has volunteered on student outings to Hesed House, Our Lady of Angels Food Pantry, Villa Saint Benedict, WDSRA, and Feed My Starving Children. He tirelessly encouraged his students to try giving back to different aspects of the community. He said that he enjoys working with the homeless the most and that his students are often shocked to see people their age in the shelters.

In his retirement Mr. Schumacher plans to devote more time to service and also to family. Although he knows he is going to miss his interactions with students and colleagues, he also wants to have the time to devote to other aspects of his busy life.  

Mr. Schumacher has been a positive influence and a dedicated educator to the Benet Community for forty-­seven years. Benet Academy would not be the same if it were not for him. He has been an example of faith and service to many and has left a great and lasting impression on the school.