Mourning an Elder icon

Elder legend and English teacher Joe Acito passed away yesterday, saddening the thousands of Elder grads whose lives he touched. Mine included.

Every morning during my senior year, I plopped into a desk in Joe Acito’s classroom, ready to hear what kind of knowledge he’d drop on us that day. He made it fun and exciting.

Mr. Acito let us choose our own books to read and write essays about. He taught us about Beowulf, and used the term epic to describe it.

“Wiglaf…he was a good kid,” he’d say, emphasizing the words good kid so loudly that I’m sure those who lived a mile away knew just how good a kid Wiglaf was.

When we went to Europe in 2007 we had an opportunity to drink some meade, which of course was mentioned in Beowulf. When Mr. Acito had the chance he pulled a bunch of us aside—those of us who had him in class—and told us, “You know what we drank last night men? That was meade!”

Mr. Acito has had heart troubles over the past few years, and in fact, missed the last portion of my senior year because of it.

If you were an Elder grad, I guarantee you knew Mr. Acito, even if you didn’t have him in class. Each year he organized the senior golf outing on the last day of classes, and every year the announcement was the same.

“If my old ass can walk, you young kids will definitely walk,” he say on the morning announcements. To think a whole group of Elder students will never get to hear that again is sad.

I know people rarely visit here to see what I think about the world’s issues, but today I can’t say it any better than Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty did today on his blog, which is normally called “The Morning Line.”

Today he renamed it “The Joe Acito Line,” in memory of a man he called one of his best friends. (Read Doc’s column here: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/daugherty/2011/03/25/the-joe-acito-line-325/)

Also, Elder grad and Channel 9 sportscaster Dennis Janson weighed in on Mr. Acito: http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_news/every-high-school-grad-had-a-joe-acito-in-their-life

And the Enquirer’s report with quotes from Elder’s Principal Tom Otten, who has worked side-by-side with Mr. Acito for almost every one of the 43 years Acito was at Elder. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110325/NEWS0104/303250111/Joe-Acito-Elder-teacher-dies-?odyssey=tabtopnewstextFRONTPAGE

It is a sad day in the Elder family, but we all join together, bleeding (and crying) purple today in memory of one hell of a teacher, and one hell of a man.

Hopefully his humor lives on upstairs with all the friends he’s made. I just hope the big guy doesn’t mind Mr. Acito calling those little kids running around on the grass “brazen little shits.” It’s the only way I remember what that word actually means.

Have a great Friday. Thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Acito’s wife Fran (who also made the trip to Europe with us in ’07, and was a very nice lady) and the rest of the Acito family today. Altiora.