R.I.P. Marie O'Brien

Just received news that former North Plainfield High School English teacher Marie O'Brien died Tuesday. (Read the obit in the Courier News.) She had a 59-year career at NPHS. I remember her vaguely as someone who loved the English language, and as a teacher who was stern, intimidating, and wouldn't tolerate sloppy writing or behavior. I think she scared the crap out of me....probably because of my sloppy habits at the time. Her mantra, according to the News obit, was, "The more you write, the better you will become." Gotta love a person with that motto. It's especially relevant to me as someone who just wrote his 100th post for this blog. John Cregar wrote me that he visited her 18 months ago and she was busy reading the biographies of every American President in sequential order. Wow. That's a true scholar. I wonder if she completed that task before she passed....