Science teacher jury-rigged everything and used humor as the glue
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In our Parting Thoughts series, we remember everyday Minnesotans.
If a door jammed or a student struggled in class, George Jezierski had a solution.
“His patience was unbelievable,” said his daughter, Barb Sieracki. “He just knew how to fix everything.”
Jezierski was a math and science teacher at Centennial High School in Circle Pines, Minn., and relied heavily on humor to fill the gaps for struggling students. He’d often work with students with troubled backgrounds. Making them laugh built a connection to school and learning.
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“They grew to respect him because he would establish a relationship with them,” Sieracki said.
But his passion for his students extended beyond when the bell rang. Jezierski was also a football and wrestling coach who employed his kindness and gentle demeanor to motivate students on the field.
“My father was just one of those steady-in-the-storm types. So, he was the type of man that you really could look up to,” Sieracki said.
As a child of the Great Depression, he understood how far a dollar could stretch. He paid for everything in cash and emphasized the insignificance of material things. If something broke, he would fix it to save money, Sieracki said.
She recalled a time when one of their family cars had a rusted-out bottom. “He just cut a piece of [a metal] swimming pool and just attached it to the bottom of the car. And so then you didn't have to see the road anymore,” she said
But despite his thriftiness, he used the money he saved on his children and travel. He paid for trips to Europe for Sieracki and her siblings and even family trips to a cabin so everyone could be together. He traveled all over the world with his wife, Marlene, and used his motorcycle to travel in the U.S.
“My mom would take time off. They would just get on the bike, and they had no plans,” Sieracki said. “They just traveled all over.”
She said the time he spent on his bike was his favorite. But his travels always brought him back home, where Sieracki said, he remained nearby.
“I wouldn't have made it without my dad,” she said. “He would just say, ‘you know what, it's gonna be OK, Barb,’ and I believed him, and it was, because he believed in me.”
George Jezierski died on Sept. 30. He was 89 years old.
Listen to the Parting Thoughts conversation on George Jezierski by clicking the play button above.
