The District of San Francisco mourns the untimely death of longtime teacher Annie Johnston in Pasadena at the age of 46. A teacher of English at La Salle High School in Pasadena for twelve years, she had been honored with the school’s Educator of the Year award and Signum Fidei award, and was director of the honors curriculum. Twelve hundred mourners crowded her funeral at St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Canada on August 24, and the online guestbook provided by the Los Angeles Times obituary service is filled with heartfelt testimonials and sorrowing praise. Says a typical former student, "Ms. Johnston is with me every day as I teach. I became a humanities teacher because of the inspiration, support, love and passion for literature she gave me in her classes in both 9th and 12th grade. She celebrated life and revealed its depth and complications in literature and discussion. She taught and lived with such energy and passion. I admire her and love her to my core and she continues to shape the person I strive to be as a teacher, every day." Click here to visit the guestbook. Condolences can be sent to her husband, David Skibinski, c/o President’s Office, La Salle High School, 3880 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena CA 91107-1972.

The article (below) about her work as a teacher was printed in 2000, and deserves reprinting here.

Annie Johnston:
The Sublime Dedication of a Master Teacher

Annie Johnston is a formidable personality. But then, she has to be, to deal every day with the likes of Sartre, Camus, Kafka, and other literary heavyweights. She is the Chair of the English Department at La Salle High School in Pasadena, and her passion is introducing her students to great books. Assistant Principal John Ring says she has "that quality that the rare master teachers have -- an unwillingness to accept that students cannot succeed, and a sublime dedication to their welfare, which is expressed in challenging them repeatedly to think, to analyze."

Though she is known as a strong teacher, having won both the Educator of the Year award voted by her colleagues and the Signum Fidei award voted by the Student Senate, Ms. Johnston says that of the Twelve Virtues of the Lasallian teacher, the "core virtue, the one that underlies all the others, is Gentleness. Knowing when to press and when not to press is the mark of a good teacher. I'm kind to students, I think. I'm not their friend, note. But I am kind. My mother was a teacher, and she gave me advice that fits in perfectly with De La Salle's: 'Never corner a student.' I always remember that."

A teacher for ten years before coming to La Salle High School five years ago, she has found the Lasallian philosophy of education to be both profound and practical. "The Twelve Virtues," she says, "could go right into any teacher training program." She is a member of the Lasallian Leadership Institute now completing its first 3-year cycle, and she says it is "fantastic. The Brothers are visionary in bringing to their associates the charism of De La Salle. In a time of fewer vocations to vowed religious life, the Brothers are ahead of the curve in spreading their legacy to their Partners."

Ms. Johnston has thought long and hard about the Twelve Virtues. Silence? She laughs, "I couldn't describe myself as 'silent'. I see it as keeping calm, not raising my voice. A calm teacher is a powerful and effective teacher." Prudence? "Extremely important, and it comes with experience." Zeal? I'm zealous about my subject and about the students' engagement with it. The question for me is always: 'Are their minds more expanded when they leave my class than when they arrived?'" Vigilance? "It's crucial, it's preventative, it means seeing problems while they're small, catching trouble early." Piety? "I'm very Catholic, and I have a deep faith. I don't press it upon the students, but of course it comes up naturally. The books we read inevitably bring up the deepest questions of faith and freedom, of purpose and meaning, and I push the students to really examine these things."

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The De La Salle Christian Brothers of the District of San Francisco sponsor eleven high schools, one college, and other apostolates. Among them is La Salle High School of Pasadena, www.lasallehs.org, where Annie Johnston did her work. The mission of the De La Salle Christian Brothers and their lay Partners is to give “a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor."