David McGrath, Bernie Mac's freshman English teacher at Vocational High School, remembered the "tall, skinny kid" then known as Bernard Jeffrey McCullough that he taught 36-years ago in Thursday's Tribune:
I was a nervous, first-year teacher, intent on impressing the principal with my class-management skills, in hopes of gaining tenure.Bernie Mac was the class cutup, a compulsive performer, to whom audience approval was more important than my lesson plans or his grades.
Not exactly my most-prized student.
But one memorable afternoon, his talent seemed to work in my favor. A heavy-set, officious assistant principal who liked to bully rookies paid a surprise visit to my 8th-period English class.
It was the last class any teacher would want observed.
Read the rest here.
A memorial service for the South Side-bred comedian Bernie Mac is scheduled for noon Saturday at House of Hope at 752 East 114th Street.
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