Spanish teacher at West Mifflin High School for 34 years
To generations of students who passed through the halls of West Mifflin Area High School, the Spanish teacher with the distinctive mustache and seemingly unpronounceable Polish last name — Walendziewicz — was known simply as “Señor Wal.”
Wielding an arsenal of theatrical tricks, Walter C. Walendziewicz made a lasting impression during the 34 years he taught every level of Spanish. There were the occasional swift kicks to the chairs of distracted students, the funny sayings and corny jokes, and the loud gameshow noises made with his mouth that he called the “gringo buzzer,” signifying a wrong answer on tests he was checking while his kids worked on in-class assignments.
To hear former student and protege Rebecca Cibulka tell it, that impression, quirks and all, was one of a guy who loved his students. And they loved him back.
“He’s definitely the reason that I became a Spanish teacher,“said Ms. Cibulka, who teaches at West Mifflin. She followed her mentor, just as decades earlier Mr. Walendziewicz had replaced his onetime inspiration, former Spanish teacher Nick Miele.
Mr. Walendziewicz (pronounced walend-ZEH-vich), of Pleasant Hills, died Friday of a ruptured aneurysm. He was 70.
Although he left teaching in 2003, Mr. Walendziewicz spent part of his retirement reaching out to old students on Facebook, sending them notes in Spanish and forcing some to dust off their old textbooks to decipher his messages. He spent the rest of his post-work years with his two grandchildren, listening to doo-wop and dancing around the living room with Lizzy, his collie-Labrador retriever mix, as she stood on her hind legs.
He had, of course, taught her commands in Spanish.
Mr. Walendziewicz’s was a quintessential Pittsburgh story. Grew up in Whitaker. Mom worked at a grocery store. Father was a steelworker who wanted his son to get an education and stay out of the mills.
In high school, Mr. Walendziewicz discovered he had a knack for Spanish. And he was inspired by his Spanish teacher.
“Walt always knew he wanted to be a teacher,” said Cheryl Walendziewicz, his wife of 47 years.
He enrolled at Duquesne University, where he received a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s. One rainy summer day in 1968, when he was off-shift from toiling in the mill for tuition money, Mr. Walendziewicz spotted a young woman he had seen around who lived up the hill. Her name was Cheryl. He offered her a ride. They got married a year later.
In 1973, after he received his master’s degree, the young couple embarked on the one and only journey Mr. Walendziewicz ever took to a country where the language he had long studied was spoken: Spain. He made sure to teach his wife a few choice phrases, including, “I have a husband.”
“We were poor as church mice on that trip, but we scraped the money together to go. It was the trip of a lifetime,” Mrs. Walendziewicz said. “Everyone thought he was Argentinean. He was tan, it was in the summer, dark hair, dark mustache.”
By then Mr. Walendziewicz was firmly ensconced in his career. He gave nicknames to the kids. Ms. Cibulka became “Bequita,” or Becky. A girl named Kim, which has no Spanish equivalent, became “Química,” which sounds similar but actually means “chemistry.”
“He always kept you guessing,” Ms. Cibulka said. “You never knew what he was gonna do next. Some days he was just wacky, just wild.” But always sincere. “He was always teaching. If there was a teachable moment, he took it. So kids coming home from school, he’d talk to them. He’d make a point of knowing their names and knowing something about them,” Mrs. Walendziewicz said. “He’d always remember things about people and wanted that personal element.”
“He always made everybody he taught feel like they were special,” Ms. Cibulka said. “He remembered people for years. He connected with everybody.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. Walendziewicz is survived by a daughter, Ann Gaska, of West Mifflin; grandchildren Alayna and Andrew; and sisters Dolores Szatkowski of Monroeville and Patrick Hajduk of McCandless.
A funeral Mass is at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Thomas A’ Becket Catholic Church in Jefferson Hills.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Capuchin Franciscans, 220 37th St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201.