Brian Pabich has been teaching at St. Scholastica Academy for forty years. Many alumnae call him “Mister SSA.” He is a graduate of Loyola University in Chicago and has a Master’s Degree from the University of Tulsa in Teaching Arts with an emphasis on English. He is married to Wanda and has four children, ranging in ages from 25 to 20 and a two-year-old granddaughter. Accept for three years in the Uptown area, Brian’s whole life has been spent as a suburbanite. This fact led to my first question

Q: You’re from Wilmette. What brought you to Chicago to work all these years? A: I was on a list for Chicago Catholic area schools for teachers and in 1965 I got a call from Sister Judith Murphy. I was surprised when she told me she was the principal of St. Scholastica Academy and was asking me to teach at this all girls’ school in Rogers Park. I was just out of college and was about to begin my first day driving a cab, so I had to think before I accepted a job being the only male on the staff at that time. I had dated girls from St. Scholastica in high school, and that was not too long before.

Q: And how was that experience being in a female environment? A: I obviously knew I was being watched by the students. At first, many thought I was a visitor from St. George Boys’ High School nearby. I must have looked like a teenager.

Q: Was it a good experience? I would guess so, because you are still here forty years later. A: Yes, it was tough in some ways with all female students and colleagues, too at that time, but I did get a lot of help from other teachers on the faculty, especially another English teacher Virginia Schwegel, a longtime Rogers Park resident who now lives in Michigan.

Q: Why have you stayed all these years? A: The challenge continually to improve my teaching and a sense of community at St. Scholastica. Much of the job is fun. A couple of times I had thoughts of leaving but decided to stay because of the opportunity to influence girls as they make moral choices for their lives, especially in the area of respect for life.

Q: How has the student body changed over these years? A: Certainly more diverse. When I came there were two Black students, no Hispanic girls, no Asians. Also, there were very few girls who were not Catholic. Now that has changed. We have a very diverse population, ethnically and religiously. Currently, we are 50% non-Catholic. Back then we were so large that we had rules about how to get through the halls. Now we are much smaller.

Q: Any comments on the quality of the education then and now? A: It’s still high. Less memorizing and more thinking. Of course, we’re into computers now. More science and math oriented. We no longer teach home economics, but are all college directed. College counseling is very important here. All of our girls are accepted to college.

Q: Can you summarize your picture of Rogers Park today in contrast to when you came? A: The whole area is much more diverse. It seemed to me in 1965 to be Irish Catholic and Jewish. Now it’s quite different with different races and ethnic groups. This is reflected in our student body. I used to go up and down Clark Street and never see anyone who wasn’t Caucasian. Times have changed here, and our school has changed with them. Though our students do come from all over the city and neighboring suburbs, we are a true reflection of our neighborhood.