Page 7 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 4 Summer 2013

FIDEL RODRIGUEZ: 25 YEARS
It was in early October of 1988, recalls a certain señor
of our acquaintance, who had been recruited to help
out after a newly hired Spanish teacher had suddenly
decided that two weeks at St. Paul’s was just about
enough. “At the time,” Fidel Rodriguez recalls, “I was on
sabbatical from teaching college, and I was also attend-
ing Boston College for a second Ph.D.”
That fall morning was one of his first experiences of
daily Chapel. Around him, he realized, odd noises had
broken out, a kind of universal chirping to be heard from
all among the student seats. “I could not understand the
agitation and noise,” he recalls.
Señor Rodriguez had arrived, of course, at Cricket
Holiday. That’s when he decided that he wanted to stay at
SPS as a faculty member.
Twenty-five years have since passed, and Señor Rod-
riguez has taught Spanish at every level and with a leg-
endary enthusiasm and aplomb. He obviously loves what
he does, as seen most evidently during class but also
when you happen by on a path and he’s in an animated
discussion with a student, a colleague, or any of the staff
members he has befriended over the years. Their con-
versation might be on any subject – the day’s class
reading by Isabel Allende, an item from one of the five
newspapers he has already read that morning, or, if he
seems especially energized, the “beautiful sport” of soccer.
Or, given his Ph.D. in philosophy and his passion for
history, the topic could be just about anything else. Then,
after a friendly parting, you will see him continue on his
way, in his distinctive gait, hands folded behind his back,
considering some new challenge – or devilment – for his
next class.
Señor Rodriguez taught seven years in his native and
beloved Spain and nine years at different American col-
leges before joining the SPS faculty. Of his 25 years at
St. Paul’s, he served 19 as head of house in North and most
of his fall terms as a soccer coach and referee, finding his
greatest glory when the JV girls soccer team gave him an
undefeated season in his final year as their coach.
“His wisdom and knowledge was evident when
I arrived 13 years ago,” says Spanish teacher Jorge
Pardo, whom Señor Rodriguez mentored for his first
few months at the School. Pardo continues to seek
guidance from his colleague’s linguistic knowledge and
passion for teaching.
Another colleague said recently that Fidel Rodriguez
is possibly the most intellectually astute and most widely
read person of her acquaintance. Others who know him
well value just as much his wit, his friendship, and the
kind of sensibility, sensitivity, and love of learning that
his hundreds of students have come to appreciate so
much over the last 25 years.
Celebrating Legendary Enthusiasm
PETER FINGER
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