84 Year Old Survivor Receives Honorary Lifetime Teaching License
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: |
Contact: Christine Dufour |
June 9, 2008 |
Phone: (651) 582.8720 |
84-year-old Prison Camp Survivor to Receive
Honorary Teaching License
In 1940, when Henryk Gurman was a teenager persevering in a Russian forced-labor camp, his aspirations of becoming a professor of mathematics and living in America were simply foolish dreams that were nullified by a Russian officer.
His dreams will be realized at 10 a.m. June 9 when Commissioner Alice Seagren confers an honorary lifetime teaching license to 84-year-old Gurman at Stonecrest in Woodbury. His wife June Gurman, a native New Yorker, will be at his side when he receives his license.
“It is an honor to present this license to an accomplished teacher and person,” Seagren said. “He engages his students with humor, a passion for mathematics and an engaging life history that he uses to season his lessons. He has justly earned this honorary lifetime license and it is with great respect that I commend his extraordinary efforts.”
Gurman began his pursuit of a teaching license after he retired as an accountant. The Minnesota Department of Education allows teacher candidates an alternative pathway to a full professional Minnesota education license. The Licensure via Portfolio process assesses knowledge, skills and competencies of license applicants who have not completed an approved teacher preparation program in Minnesota in the licensure field being sought.
Gurman is an inspiration to students and all who meet him. He lived an extraordinary life which began as the son of a wealthy Jewish family in Poland. His life abruptly changed when his family fled to Warsaw following the Nazi invasion of Poland. He resumed his education but two days before graduation, he and his family were arrested and sent to a forced-labor camp in Russia. Gurman’s dream of becoming a mathematics professor ended. He spent 10 hours a day chopping wood. He spent two years in this grim existence before the Soviets released the prisoners from the camps as the German army advanced.
He enlisted in a Polish division of the Red Army. When the war ended, he borrowed a Russian army uniform to travel safely from East Berlin to West Berlin to rejoin his parents. Eventually, Gurman and his family moved to America when his sister, Anna, in New York provided affidavits of support. Anna began living in America after a visit to see the World’s Fair in New York with her newlywed husband. Their ship was sent back to the United States when the war broke out.
Gurman arrived in New York Harbor on Aug. 30, 1946. He attended City College in New York after passing high school equivalency exams. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Business Administration in 1951. He began his career as a bookkeeper, obtained his CPA, and later earned his way to a Chief Financial Officer position. In 1967, he was recruited for a CFO position in Minnesota. In 1970, he opened his own firm, which he sold 10 years later and retired. Yet, it wasn’t the end of his story.
Encouraged by his wife and two daughters, Henryk began pursuing his dream of teaching. He completed classes at a variety of colleges including Century College and St. Thomas and became a volunteer math tutor at several local schools, focusing his tutoring efforts on assisting African American students with mathematics. Then, a Woodbury principal helped him to pursue his substitute teaching license while tutoring at Woodbury High School.
While obtaining his substitute license, Gurman became aware of the new Licensure via Portfolio process. Through the portfolio process, he demonstrated his competency in the licensure standards based on college course completion, professional development, teaching experience and life experiences.
"Henryk has shown a great commitment to his students and education in Minnesota," said John Melick, Director of Educator Licensing. "Henryk teaches respect for others and models this principle every time he is instructing a lesson. Henryk presents lessons with the vigor and passion of a new teacher; he brings his lessons to life.”
Now in his eighties, Gurman is a vibrant, energetic teacher – ready and willing to make a difference. Among his clippings of heroes, memorabilia, humorous expressions, famous quotes and his joke book are a jumble of notes and letters of thanks and certificates of recognition. Many are from his students. All share a common theme:
“We love you Grampa Henry – you are the best substitute teacher, we ever had!”
To this day, he still has to pinch himself on occasion. Henryk’s gratitude is simple, straight forward, genuine and heartfelt. He counts his many blessings: his survival, his arrival in the United States, his education, his marriage and family, his move to Minnesota and the joy of fulfilling his dream of teaching.
Conferring an honorary teaching license is extremely rare. After meeting Henryk, it’s easy to see why this extremely rare event would be conferred on this particularly rare and delightful man. But, Henryk will probably still pinch himself.
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