Popular Bethel Park teacher loved fishing and Phish
Jon Gentile didn’t need much, aside from a classroom of eager faces — and let’s face it — maybe even a couple of goof-offs.
A lover of flannel, fishing and the band Phish, Mr. Gentile was something else to those kids in his Advanced Placement European history class at Bethel Park High School: He was a rock star.
“He was so much more than I ever realized,” said his wife, Kathy Rose Gentile. “I’m married to a rock star. He loved everything and everyone. He was just a good time, all the time. It’s really hard to come by that kind of person.”
“Teaching was really more of a passion and vocation for him,” said Mr. Gentile’s mother, Deborah Gentile-Miklosey, of The Villages, Fla. “Last week at Jon’s celebration of life, I saw my son as someone who loved others well. He coached, he taught, he did so much that I didn’t know about. Apparently, he just said yes to everything.”
When students spoke at his funeral services last week, they said things such as, “When he talked to you, you felt like the only person in the world,” “He was really just focused on what I needed,” and perhaps the most telling comment, from a student who never had him as a teacher: “He spoke to me every day in (the) hall.”
Mr. Gentile, 38, of Mt. Lebanon, died May 24, two days after his kayak overturned during a trip down the Delaware River in New Hope, Bucks County, with his father, Jim Gentile.
“We’d been fishing for two hours, and we were getting ready to get out of the river, but we had to navigate this little, 4-foot-deep dam,” said his father, a registered nurse who lives in New Hope and works at the nearby St. Mary Medical Center.
At the dam, both men flipped their kayaks, he said.
“I came up and was screaming his name out,” he said. “I couldn’t find him, then I saw something pop up and it was his life jacket, still attached to him. I flipped him over onto his back, but the shore was just steep rocks, so I just sat there, blowing into his mouth and nothing was getting in. He’d been down for over five minutes.”
Jim Gentile scrambled to get help, and even though first responders made it there 10 minutes later, there was little that any of them could do.
“We did CPR, but to no avail. I was just sitting in this rock crevice, crying and screaming to God, and I just couldn’t save him,” he said. “He went over what is called a lowwall dam. They are nicknamed ‘the drowning machines,’ and there are actually a lot of them in the Pittsburgh area. It was a tragic accident. It’s terrible.”
Jon Gentile was eventually resuscitated at the hospital, but because he never regained consciousness and had no brain activity, his family made the choice to remove him from a respirator and fulfill his wish to donate his organs.
“There was time for his wife to see him alive,” Jim Gentile said. “When we took him to the OR [for the harvest of his organs], employees lined the hallway. We covered his bed with a sheet that said ‘Our Hero,’ and we had flower petals all over him. He donated his heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and skin. At least he died doing what he loved — he loved fishing, and he loved being on the water.”
Jon Gentile grew up in Penndel in Bucks County and originally intended to pursue a career in information technology.
But, it was his time as a youth counselor at a camp in Panama City, Fla., the summer before his freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh, that gave him pause, his mother said.
“After thinking about that summer experience, he changed his mind and decided to pursue teaching,” she said. “Pitt had a five-year [master’s program in education], and it was very hard to get into. But, Jon just had a humble confidence about him. He said, ‘Don’t worry, Mom. I’m gonna get into that fifth year,’ and he did. I was so proud of him.”
He met Kathy Rose Collura as a student teacher at Bethel Park High School and got to know her better when he was offered a permanent position a couple of years later.
“His classroom was right across from mine,” said Mrs. Gentile, who has taught 10th grade history at the school for 21 years.
What started as a friendship eventually blossomed into love.
“We were with other people and just friends at first,” she recalled. “Then one day, it was just like ‘Boom!’ ”
“He didn’t seriously date much, and we could just immediately tell that she was the love of his life. They fit like a glove,” his father said. “His mother and I were so happy that he found a kindred spirit in this wonderful woman.”
Three years ago, the Gentiles were able to buy their dream home in Mt. Lebanon after years of scrimping and saving.
“We were just getting started,” his wife said, crying. “I’m heartbroken, you know. We were just so much more than a married couple — we were the best of friends.”
Mr. Gentile was an accomplished soccer player in his youth and coached girls varsity soccer at Bethel Park for 11 years, along with the Beadling Soccer Club, where their 9-year-old son, Giancarlo, now plays.
A lifelong outdoors enthusiast and member of a sportsmen’s club in Tionesta, Forest County, Mr. Gentile was known for his Natural Light Beer T-shirt and red Phish cap, his wife said.
“That was his go-to outfit — the Natty Light shirt and faded red Phish hat,” she said. “He would never go anywhere without that hat and shirt, and I’m beside myself right now because I can’t find them anywhere. I’m just praying to St. Anthony that I will be able to find these things.”
Mr. Gentile made quick friends with like-minded people, especially his colleague Rich Casagranda, an English teacher at Bethel Park High School.
“We very much shared some common interests, mostly live music,” Mr. Casagranda said. “He was a really good friend and best man in my wedding. He was the kind of person you wanted to be around. I’m one of many people who would consider him a very good friend.”
They often attended Phish concerts and went on fishing trips, but it was the classroom where Mr. Gentile really shone, his friend said.
“He knew the content, and he was able to engage all the students,” Mr. Casagranda said. “He really went out of his way to befriend a quiet kid. He just had this bigger-than-life personality and he was an awesome friend.”
In the days since his accident, students have found unique ways to honor Mr. Gentile and raise money for his family, like making “Live adventurously like Mr. G,” shirts.
“That day after the accident, it was a sea of flannel shirts here,” Mr. Casagranda said.
Thursday night at 7:30, a student band will perform at Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, 4940 Library Road, Bethel Park, to help raise funds for his family.
“The kids are trying to do what they can to keep his memory alive and to support his family. His wife is also a beloved teacher as well.” Mr. Casagranda said. “Jon was a really special guy and a special friend. He’s going to be missed by many.”
There is a GoFundMe page devoted to Mr. Gentile’s memory, and a scholarship is being organized — not for the smartest or best athlete — but for the kindest student, his mother said.
“The scholarship will be for the student with the biggest heart. The one who talks to the kid in the lunchroom sitting by himself,” she said. “I’m just so proud of the man my son became. I feel that my son impacted more people in his 38 years than some do in a lifetime.”
“The outpouring of love from the school and the Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon communities has been absolutely unreal,” his wife said. “I’m just overwhelmed with gratefulness.”
A devoted husband, father and friend, Mr. Gentile was generous of heart and soul, his father said.
“He could cook, he loved music, and he was the life of the party without being brash,” he said. “When Jon was there, everybody felt loved, everybody felt included. As a dad, you always wish your son is a better father than you were, and he was.”
A public memorial this summer at the high school is also being planned.
Along with his wife, son and parents, Mr. Gentile is survived by his brothers, Justin, of Austin, Texas, and Jared, of Sacramento, Calif.