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A Patient Man
Wayne Gaynor P’99,’04 by
Henry McNulty
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OR ONE SO ADEPT AT TEACHING, Wayne Gaynor did not grow up in a particularly academic family. His mother graduated from high school, but his father left school after the sixth grade. From that modest beginning came an acclaimed Hotchkiss teacher.
High School Inspiration
The youngest of four boys, Wayne grew up in the Mystic section of Stonington, CT, and went to Stonington High School. It was his 10th-grade geometry teacher who first planted the idea in Wayne’s mind that he himself might become a high school math teacher. “He was clear, dynamic, excited about his subject, and committed to his students,” Wayne remembers. “I was struck by his ability to turn what could be a dreaded and seemingly dull discipline into something fun and accessible.”
Wayne graduated from the University of Hartford in 1974, then taught math at Cheshire (CT) Academy for three years. In 1976, he married Nancy Swift in Haddonfield, NJ. In 1977, he and Nancy moved to the Hill School in Pottstown, PA, where they stayed nine years. Nancy at first taught reading in the study skills department at Hill, then returned to school to get a master’s degree in education. Wayne earned a master’s in mathematics at nearby West Chester University. They had their first child, Peter Gaynor ’99, in 1981; Peter is now a middle school teacher at Montclair Kimberly Academy in New Jersey.
Back to Connecticut
Though they were happy in Pennsylvania, the Gaynors missed New England. “I grew up there,” Wayne explains, “and Nancy also
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