Mark Twain said it best,
“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Tom O’Malley did just that every time he stepped through the doors of St. Francis High School since 1983. “I don’t really consider it work, it’s really more of a vocation,” said Thomas O’Malley as we sat down to chronicle his some 36 years as a teacher at St. Francis High School. It’s 1983 and O’Malley was being interviewed by former faculty member and English Department Chair, Pete Cavaretta. Before he was offered the job, the Principal Fr. Leon Krop, wanted to speak with him. “Fr. Leon said I really want to talk to you, but there’s something I have to do first, so go sit in the chapel.” O’Malley explains that he went into the chapel and that’s when he fell in love with the school. “It’s (the chapel) such a very special place and there is nothing like going to mass in the chapel. I thought to myself, ‘I really hope I get this job’.” He did get the job and now 36 years later he’s ready to start the next chapter of his life. What’s changed the most since 1983 when a gallon of gas cost $1.16? O’Malley says the use of computers and technology. “When I first got here we just started getting the old Apple II’s and I was lucky I got right onboard with those, I never took a course or anything. I was
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doing the school newspaper (The Banner) and the guys on the paper were geeks and they knew everything and they taught me a lot and that’s what got me started.” While technology has grown at a rapid pace since the early 80’s according to O’Malley, “the students really haven’t changed that much, the world has changed but they are still St. Francis gentlemen.” O’Malley said that he never really had a lot of issues with students and that they want to learn. “I love the guys here, it’s special.” What will he miss the most? “My colleagues, especially the English department. We are not just colleagues, we are friends.” O’Malley explains that he shared life experiences with his colleagues, marriages, and kids, “we lived life together in so many ways.”
