A Good Teacher is Never Forgotten

Yesterday I went to an opening and round table discussion for Frank Rampolla at the Leepa Ratner Museum in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The discussion was correlated with an exhibition of his paintings. I had my own personal story that brought me to the event yesterday. Frank Rampolla was a teacher at the university I attended for my undergraduate degree. My major was printmaking and Frank became my teacher. The semester started out with a different professor who knew little of printmaking, showed up rarely to teach, leaving a graduate assistant in charge(which was the fashion in the 60's), and had given the whole class horrible grades. Midway through the semester Frank Rampolla was brought in from Ringling School of Art. He was a generous loving wonderful person. He loved printmaking and he loved his students. The class went from a horrible experience to a wonderful place of learning-an exciting place of ideas.

There was tension in the department when Frank decided to grade the students himself and I know it was not easy for him. I am sure there was a battle in the art department, but he persisted. He was a fair man and could not stand injustice. Our grades all went up to appropriate levels. Frank Rampolla became one of my favorite professors, so it was shocking when I learned he had died the next year. He was only in his forty's and left behind an 11 year old son.

One of the interesting parts of the round table yesterday is that 11 year old boy was there, all grown up. I got to personally tell him what a wonderful person his father was and how he turned around a terrible situation for students into a positive wonderful experience. One of the speakers told how at he was driving to Frank's funeral thinking there might not be so many people there, and then he looked in his rear view mirror and there were lines and lines of cars, full of students from two different universities...Ringling School of Arts and University of South Florida on the way to Frank Rampolla's funeral to honor their teacher.

A Good teacher is never forgotten. It was what made me drive to another town 45 years later to honor a wonderful teacher and an extraordinary man.