By Ivan Pereira
To the students, alumni and teachers at IS 238, Assistant Principal Mitchell Wiener was more than just an instructor: He was family.
Nearly 300 members of the Hollis middle school community gathered outside the school building at 88−15 182nd St. Monday night for a candlelight vigil to remember the 31−year veteran who became the first New Yorker to die of the swine flu. The outpouring of grief uplifted Wiener’s wife, Bonnie, who has been teaching at the school for the last 10 years and showed up at the vigil to thank the many supporters.
“It’s overwhelming and that’s the only thing that’s going to get me through these trying days,” the mother of three said of the memorial.
Ever since news hit that Wiener died Sunday evening at Flushing Hospital, waves of people returned to the school to drop off flowers, cards and other gifts of condolences for the 55−year−old instructor at a makeshift memorial outside the school building, which has been closed since the outbreak.
Sixth−grader Nadia Torres said she cried when she found out about his death.
“It was sad because he was well−known by everybody and he made this school come alive,” she said.
Nadia remembered how he would lighten up the day by telling corny jokes or playing music on the PA system. Former students who knew Wiener almost all of their years remembered him as a mentor interested in their lives long after the final bell rang.
Alumnus Byron Lopez, 32, who had kept in contact with Wiener since he graduated, said the administrator was the type of teacher who would keep his door open and help a student out with any problem.
“A lot of people looked at him like a father,” said Lopez, who created the makeshift memorial.
Wiener, a Brooklyn native, started teaching at IS 238 as a substitute teacher in 1978 and was hired to a teach math full time a year later. During the 1980s, he served as a dean of the school in addition to his teaching duties. In 2007, he was promoted to an assistant principal position.
Fellow school staffers spoke highly of their administrator, remarking on how he was the first to come to the school in the morning and the last to leave in the evening.
IS 238 paraprofessional Suiful Bhuiyan, who has worked at the school for the last six years, said he could not recall a time when Wiener did not have a smile on his face.
“Education was his life,” he said.
Bhuiyan said the assistant principal did not look too under the weather last week, even though he was experiencing a high temperature and flu−like symptoms. Wiener was rushed to Flushing Hospital in critical condition May 13 and by last Thursday night, he was breathing on a ventilator, according to a spokesman the hospital.
Bonnie Weiner and her eldest son, Adam, both of whom also teach at the Hollis school, were by his side throughout the weekend, hoping that he would pull through and recover like the dozens of other swine flu cases in the city over the last month. Wiener and his wife also have two other sons, twins who she said are also pursuing careers in education.
On Sunday at 6:17 p.m., Wiener lost his battle with the disease, which had claimed the lives of five other Americans as of Tuesday.
At the vigil, Bonnie Wiener said her husband’s legacy will be long felt by former students who will carry on his lessons for the rest of their lives. She vowed to return to the classroom when the school reopens next week because it was what her husband would have wanted.
“This is a time to celebrate his memory,” she said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e−mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 146.
