I was very saddened to learn yesterday of the recent death of Leonard Vincent. Mr. Vincent, as most longtime residents of Malibu know, taught Social Studies and History at Malibu High School when it was known as Malibu Park Junior High. He also taught for a number of years at Santa Monica High School. To say that Mr. Vincent was a teacher, however, is a little like saying Isaac Stern plays the violin. As a teacher, Mr. Vincent was known for his bottomless supply of eye-rolling puns, his passionate interest in politics and his stubborn conviction that every student was a star. Not could be a star. Was a star.
Above all, he will be remembered as the one teacher who almost all his students, and they were legion, considered wonderful and unique. Whatever else was happening in your school day, his was the one class you really wanted to attend. A soft, bear of a man, he prowled around the classroom lecturing, mugging and waving newspaper clippings. He laughed with you and praised you. If he was disappointed in you, though, he could shoot you a look, that coming from this kind man, made you know you had better shape up. He truly loved his students and his students loved him for it. I never heard of a teacher before or since who wrote reams of personal notes and letters to each student about their tests, their work and almost anything going on in their lives. I suspect he was invited to dinner at the homes of more students than any of his peers.
Thirty years after leaving his classroom for the last time, I still think of Mr. Vincent often even though I saw him infrequently in the last few years. His life is a testament to the profound impact a great teacher can make in the life of a boy or girl. Thinking of him always makes me want to be a better person. I believe he made all his students feel that way. Mr. Vincent was a great follower of the psychologist Abraham Maslow, who theorized about human motivation and developed the concept of self-actualization. “What a man can be, he must be,” Maslow wrote. “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately happy.” And a teacher, he might have added, must teach. To the lasting appreciation of hundreds of his former students, Mr. Vincent spent his life doing the one thing that made him happy.
Matthew Ross
Pacific Palisades