October 18, 2009

For Immediate Press Release
Contact:		Justin Philbrick, Director of Marketing and Admissions - Vice President
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Frank Kozacka with his latest student, Kimarie Lawrence, a mother of two.
Seacoastonline.com - Lara Bricker Photo

Kimarie Lawrence admits it was not a coincidence when she arrived in Frank Kozacka's room with her "Anatomy and Physiology" course book this summer.

The nursing school student had heard around the Colonial Poplin Nursing Home in Fremont that Kozacka had once been an anatomy and physiology teacher. She was struggling with the course, which was the toughest so far in her studies, and really needed some help.

Kozacka, 94, had not taught anatomy and physiology since his time as a high school teacher in Amesbury, Mass., almost 60 years before. But his mind was still sharp as was his ability, and desire, to teach.

"The anatomy hasn't changed," Kozacka said of the subject matter. "Physiology has changed quite a bit."

Several times a week during the summer, Lawrence showed up in the retired educator's room for a study session. She worked hard to grasp the physiology component of the material, especially when learning the intricate details of how the heart works.

Kozacka was there to break down the concepts so they were easy to understand. The two spent time going over how deoxygenated blood returns to the heart by way of major veins and first enters the right atrium, before going into the right ventricle, then to the pulmonary artery to the lungs.

The material was challenging and at times a bit dry to Lawrence, who was struck by Kozacka's obvious interest in the subject.

"It amazes me that he likes it," she said. "It's very complicated and he simplified it for me. He can tell you exactly how everything works."

When Lawrence took her final exam, she passed with a score of 96 and received news that she had been awarded a $3,500 scholarship. The scholarship could not have come at a better time for the mother of two, who had waited until her children were older to go back to school, and was now facing the challenge of paying for her education.

"You have no idea what a perfect time this came at," said Lawrence. "Somebody hands you $3,500 and it's like a gift from God."

Kozacka is modest when asked about his role in helping Lawrence with her studies and scholarship.

"She did 99 percent of it herself," he said, adding that patience is the most important virtue for a teacher to possess, followed closely by not talking down to the student.

Lawrence is quick to point out that without Kozacka's help she might have passed the course, but not with the top grade she received under his tutelage.

Known in Exeter
The retired teacher's generosity comes as no surprise to those who know him from Exeter. The pace of his 12 years as principal of Exeter Area Junior High was nothing compared with the pace of his retired life when he devoted himself to the Exeter community.

Kozacka served on the Conservation Commission when he was still at the junior high and went on to serve on the Planning Board for eight years. As he aged, he devoted himself to organizations that helped senior citizens, such as Meals on Wheels, where he sat on that organization's advisory board. He also served as chairman of the Council on Aging in Exeter and was on the state's Commission on Aging.

When he wasn't out in the community, Kozacka was tending to his garden, where he grew 36 different varieties of fruits and vegetables. Every year when he harvested the bounty from his enormous garden, he gave a large portion to his friends and neighbors. He even planted a special variety of bean for a neighbor who loved them, though he admits he liked them too.

"I kept busy," he acknowledged.

When he moved into Colonial Poplin about two and a half years ago, Kozacka didn't go idle — he signed up for the resident advisory board.

"When I first got there all they argued about was the meals," he said, adding, "I tried to bring in some other things."

Susan Nolan, a chaplain with Allegiance Hospice who visits Kozacka, said she loves visiting with a man who is such a delight to talk to and who stays abreast of current events through the newspapers. On a recent visit, Kozacka reported the latest news in the stock market.

He also keeps tabs on the news in his beloved Exeter through the local papers and was excited to read about two teachers he knew from the old junior high — Andy Inzenga and Bill Taylor — hosting a local radio show.

"It's so wonderful to visit with somebody like Mr. Kozacka who is so sharp and just such a wonderful person," said Nolan. "The thing that amazes me is that he continues to give so much to others but at the same time he is not seeking recognition for his actions; he helps because he wants to give. He truly cares about people."

Kozacka was born in 1915 in Amesbury, where he worked for three years after high school at the Merrimack Hat Corporation to earn money for college.

"I worked on a machine that helped felt hats," he explained.

He attended St. Anselm College, where he majored in biology and sang in the college's choir. He was interested in ornithology, the study of birds, while in school.

"I can remember one time I walked from Amesbury to Plum Island and I saw 92 species in one day," he said.

Kozacka taught for a few years after college in Amesbury before he enlisted in the Navy in 1942, when he thought he would end up at sea, but instead continued to follow his calling as a teacher. He was sent to Norfolk, Va., where he taught corpsmen at a Navy school for two years. He eventually did go to sea on a LCS 125, a Landing Craft Support ship, where he served in the Pacific theater, once saving the crew of a ship that went down.

After the war, he returned to Amesbury where he taught biology and anatomy and physiology for 20 years before taking the job in Exeter.

"After I really learned how to teach, they made me a principal," he said.

Though he enjoyed being a principal, which came with a better salary, Kozacka's first love was teaching. He kept tabs on his former students from Amesbury, especially those who went into careers in the sciences.

"I enjoyed helping the students; the ones that took anatomy and physiology and were going into nursing," he said.

One of those students, Morton Goldberg, had plans to become a lawyer when he was in high school. During his senior year at Amesbury High School, Goldberg took an independent-study biology class with Kozacka and went on to take the SAT in biology, where he scored more than 700. Goldberg decided to pursue medicine instead of the law and is now a professor of macular degeneration and other retinal diseases at Johns Hopkins.

A few years back, Kozacka heard that Goldberg was on a television news magazine, on which he mentioned his old high school biology teacher. Kozacka later got a letter from his former student, thanking him for his encouragement in biology.

"That's the highlight of teaching," said Kozacka.

Another of his students is a female pediatrician, and many others went on to become nurses or work in labs and other scientific jobs. After half a century away from teaching, Kozacka was there to help his latest student, Kimarie Lawrence, toward her goal of becoming a nurse.

"I was certainly right back in the day a little," Kozacka said of his return to teaching, noting his reaction to his latest student's success. "I was very pleased."

Anyone who would like to send a card or note to Kozacka can do by sending it to Frank Kozacka, c/o Colonial Poplin Nursing Home, 442 Main St., Fremont, NH 03044.

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