Henry Brooks Adams, a descendent of the Adams political family that spawned two early American presidents once said of teachers, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops”.

Teachers influences never stop.  And, with all the other departments that enroll many more students it is rare that a college recognizes a teacher in the Mortuary Science realm as one of those teachers of such influence.

However, come this Wednesday, the State University of New York at Canton (SUNY-Canton) will honor Professor Emeritus Barry W. Walch as the Honors Convocation namesake.  SUNY-Canton Provost Peggy A. De Cooke said this about Professor Walch in a recent press release, “Professor Walch is an immensely skilled educator who was passionate about his teaching and has a unique ability to engage and involve students.”

You can see an article about this honor for Professor Waltch here.

Professor Emeritus Barry W. Walch

According to that article, “Professor Walch helped advance the Mortuary Science associate degree and helped develop the Funeral Services Administration bachelor’s degree program (and)  retired in 2021 following a 32-year career at the college. Generations of students launched their careers under Walch’s tutelage. . “

Professor Walch made the following comments in the article, “I am thrilled to be selected to share some of my thoughts and experiences about the benefits of higher education.  In the three years since I left classroom instruction, I have come to see the bigger picture of the places our graduates are able to go. It is gratifying to see how they have used their educational boost to advance in substantial, widely varied, and valuable ways.”

Funeral Director Daily take:  After my parents’ influence, no one has influenced my life more than some of the teachers I had in grade school, high school, and college.  I consider myself so fortunate growing up in a small community where I ended up having life-long relationships with many of the teachers that helped set my educational and moral compass in the right direction.

As a funeral director I was called by many of them to offer my services at the death of spouses or other family members and those funerals became very personal for me.

Over my business years, many of my teachers became the best advocates for our funeral home also.  One of my favorite teachers was my 5th grade teacher – Mr. Leroy Ras.  After not seeing Mr. Ras for a long period of time, he surprised me when he was one of the first in my community to call and congratulate me on becoming a board member of the University of Minnesota.  He happened to be an alumni of the University of Minnesota system.

I also got to know Mr. Ras’ wife, Trudy.  Trudy worked at the local bank where we brought pre-arrangements financed through Certificates of Deposits (before Preneed Insurance was legal in Minnesota).  Unfortunately, Trudy died after a struggle with cancer.

Mr. Ras, whom I still respect and love dearly, did have a great sense of humor.  He looked across the arrangement table and said to me, “Tommy, if I had known you were going to take care of my wife when she died, I would have made sure you got A’s instead of C’s!”  It was one of those comments that broke the ice for the entire family and allowed them to make the funeral arrangements in a sense of celebration rather than mourning.

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