In Memoriam

Joshua Chosak was a dedicated home instruction teacher in Brooklyn for 30 years. “He was the consummate professional, respected and admired by all,” said his brother, Emanuel Chosak...

Miguel Pineda was a dedicated math teacher and one of the founders of Newcomers HS in Queens, a school created to support newly arrived immigrants...

Ed Muir, a staunch union activist for 44 years, got involved in the UFT as a picket captain in the union's early strikes and became a nationally recognized labor leader for his pioneering work on school safety issues...

Anna Cortes, 93, a dedicated and caring paraprofessional for 35 years, died of the coronavirus on Feb. 11, 2021...

Ellen Singler was a longtime English language arts teacher at IS 2, George L. Egbert Intermediate School, in Midland Beach on Staten Island. She was a devoted teacher for 31 years, sharing her love of reading and writing with generations of 6th-8th...

Grace Thorpe-Brathwaite, a lifelong educator who taught in the city public school system, on the college level, as a missionary and at her church, died on Jan. 18, 2021, of natural causes. She was 90...

Steve Melniszyn, a UFT member for 20 years, "was a caring math teacher who always had time to help students," said his wife, Catherine Felix-Melniszyn. They were often stopped by former students on trains or neighborhood streets, she said. Steve would take...

Cherie Holley spent 29 of her 35 years as a teacher at PS 110 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she grew up. Her specialty was math and science...

Nettie Becker introduced modern dance into the curriculum at Springfield Gardens HS in Queens during her 20 years as a health and physical education teacher at the school...

Carol Klar began her long teaching career as a 4th-grade teacher but later became a science teacher at PS 48 in Hunts Point, the Bronx. She retired in 2003...

Ellen Feldman was an elementary school reading teacher who is remembered as generous and caring...

Reading teacher Umilta Al-Uqdah is remembered for her "sweet spirit" and for always having "words of encouragement for students and colleagues."...

Gail Sallustro began her career as an elementary school teacher in 1962. She married in 1969 and took time off to raise a son, returning to the city Department of Education in 1988 as a school counselor. For the final 15 years of her career, Gail worked at...

Barbara Shiller was a UFT member for 50 years, first as an English teacher, and then as a chapter leader and a special representative for retirees, specializing in health and pension issues...

Edwin Skolnick, a UFT chapter leader in Queens for more than 25 years before his retirement in 1995, "dedicated himself to the union's growth and survival," said Richard Miller, a former UFT vice president for middle schools. "He should be remembered as a...

Susan Brody, a retired English teacher and a UFT Teacher Center coach, was a UFT member for 34 years. Susan, 72, died on Nov. 15, 2020, of COVID-19...

Paraprofessional Eileen Stareshefsky was "the heart and soul of the alternative school network" for 31 years until her retirement in 2015...

Throughout her 18 years as a paraprofessional, Elizabeth Velasco was a union activist. For more than a decade, she served as the paraprofessional representative at Edward R. Murrow HS in the Midwood section of Brooklyn...

Students were quick to register their feelings when they learned of the death of PS 165 librarian Antoinette Pizzitola on Nov. 1, 2020...

Alice Mucha, a retired fine arts teacher and a UFT member for more than 40 years, died of natural causes on Oct. 23, 2020. She was 88...

Elizabeth Langiulli, a pivotal figure in UFT leadership for four decades, died on Sept. 24, 2020. She was 85...

The UFT lost one of its icons with the passing of Edith "Eadie" Shanker, a UFT founder and the wife of former UFT President Albert Shanker, at age 87 on September 19, 2020, after suffering from kidney problems for several years...

Lavette Alexander loved teaching math and taught it in Manhattan for 26 years at PS 30 and PS 133, and was a math intervention teacher, math coach and math staff developer at PS 123 when she retired in 2013...

Diane Andersen retired in January 2020 after almost 30 years as an early childhood educator at PS 255 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn...