By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal
Posted Apr 12, 2020 at 5:59 PMUpdated at 12:54 PM
“Right church, wrong pew,” Dan Spak would tell his Firestone High School engineering students.
In the subtle advice they never found an answer, but they always got the encouragement needed to solve the problem at hand.
After school, on the weekends, during study hall or lunchtime, whenever a substitute was filling in for another teacher — Spak’s students “always found his door open.” He sacrificed so much of his free time to his career that his students fondly remember him lost in thought at his desk, speaking under his breath to his wife, who was not there, “I love you, Mary.”
Spak, Robotics Coach of the Year for 2018-19 and a former finalist for Akron Public Schools Teacher of the Year, died Saturday evening from a mysterious illness that stole his breath.
He was 65.