John Bligh
- Retired teacher
Eileen Shostack, a retired teacher and a UFT member for almost 50 years, will be remembered for generations at Manhattan’s PS 75, the Emily Dickinson School, where the library has been dedicated in her memory. The school’s staff honored Eileen’s many years of service in November 2021 and placed a plaque outside the school library.
“She loved children,” said Carol Gilead-McCray, who taught 5th-grade integrated co-teaching classes with Eileen at PS 75 for more than a decade. “It didn’t matter, good or bad, she saw a silver lining in every child.”
Eileen was 81 when she died of COVID-19 on May 12, 2021.
During her career, which began in East New York and included 29 years at PS 113 in Harlem, Eileen taught a variety of elementary school grades. In her ICT classes at PS 75, she had a knack for working with special education students.
Eileen believed “every child was able to learn regardless of their disability, and she was able to show me how to reach these kids and connect with them in a way that they would open up and were able to learn,” Gilead-McCray said. “She made sure every child had that opportunity. I learned a lot from her.”
When she was 74, Eileen received one of Scholastic Books’ 2014 Blackboard Awards for Teachers, honoring 15 of the city’s finest educators. “I don’t really feel more special than any of the other wonderful people I work with,” she wrote at the time. “I believe that children are precious and deserve to have a fulfilling day whenever they are in school. A classroom is a place to develop self-esteem, learn and also to feel wanted. This has been my mission for 44 years.”
Eileen retired two years later, in 2016, when she was 76 years old. But she couldn’t stay away. After her retirement, she continued to volunteer at PS 75 every day. Gilead-McCray said Eileen was in the school building from “7-7:30 in the morning until the end of the day, every day.”
She would read aloud to the kindergarten and 1st-grade classes and taught Latin to small groups of older students. “They were very interested in Latin because they had never heard of that language,” Gilead-McCray said. Eileen taught them the Latin words for numbers, colors, the months of the year, the days of the week.
“She had a passion for teaching,” said Eileen’s daughter Michelle Shostack.
She also had a passion for reading, and for many years she belonged to a book club. Before she died, Eileen started writing a children’s book, “Sundays with Daddy,” and her daughter worked with the publisher to finish the book.
Eileen loved traveling, and one of her favorite destinations was Las Vegas. Singing with the Nashir chorus was another hobby. “She had a zest for life and boundless energy,” her daughter said.
Eileen was predeceased by her husband of 51 years, Bernard Shostack. In addition to Michelle, she is survived by another daughter, Sandra Bornstein; a son, Jeffrey Shostack; and a brother, Abraham Prosky.
Condolences may be sent to:
Dr. Michelle Shostack
225 E. 57th St., Apt. 8C
New York, NY 10022
