St. Pius X alumni; As most of you know Fr. Nugent recently passed away. He was one of the Priests who taught countless students over a 21 year period from 1968-1989. He was a particularly close friend of our family due to St. Monicas being our parish in those days. He became a big friend of my parents and this was before I even began at Pius so having him in grade 9 math, the familiarity certainly helped. In conversing on FB with a couple of other grads from that era I wrote a particular memory of him from that time. Pour a coffee or snap a cap, only take you a few minutes to read it but its how it was at that time at St. Pius. My Fr Nugent story....grade 9....1973...different world, to say the least and St. Pius X High School, well, lets put it this way, they were two years removed from housing borders and only a year into having girls attend the school...Fr Nugent was a slightly less foreboding individual than Fr Baxter only because Baxter was knocking kids out the first week.......I had Fr Nugent for grade 9 math...Our parish was St. Monicas...He was the parish Priest there. As a result he was a welcome guest for dinner on the Kars Road many times through my latter years at St. Leonards. I felt somewhat empowered with this friendship. Still, that fateful day when we saw him in full bloom, even a scent of familiarity was a chasm between him and the students that day.... It was week two of school. Our class was in the portables…Every one who attended Pius will know exactly where I mean. You could close your eyes and picture every single class. Our room was on the campus side. It was a nice late summer day. We had math first period. I sat second row in, five seats down, right in front of Kevin Jardine. As you recall, after home room, when the bell went you went directly to class. I took my seat and turned to talk to Kevin. I saw that Fr. Nugent had made his way to the far back of the class to the window seats, one of the last ones…where, as he called him, Mr. Poirier sat…Mr. Poirier had been kept back…yes, I know these are foreign words today, he failed grade 9 so he was doing a victory lap and lo and behold he ends up with Nugent in grade 9 math. Poirier was 16, stood about 5’9” about a buck eighty so he was pretty solid…Fr Nugent, in his pastor splendor, all black, white collar, glasses, jet black hair, six foot and change, maybe a buck eighty-five but with exceptionally large forearms, shoulders that when he yelled would pull back as if to say, “I will lift this building!!!”…walking in a deliberate fashion, straight as a rod, measured, direct but, if your homework was done, even in those early days, you were met with effuse vocabulary that made you feel like you had conquered Everest. Then. The eruption. It happened so fast we all barely had time to blink. Voices raised and as I sat, legs splayed, casually turned knowing that with my homework done I would feel no wrath, I still could not bring myself to put my body right in my seat. To this day, I will never, ever, ever forget that eruption from that class, that day. Mr. Poirier had slammed shut his math book in a brief yet cannonading exchange with Fr. Nugent. He exclaimed loudly for all to hear, “I’m outta here!” and he stood up and began the walk to the door. Fr Nugent had turned in front of him, seemingly as if on air he glided back to the front of the class, went to the door, stopped, turned around and crossed the his forearms, hereto now known as the pythons. In measured yet no-nonsense terms he said, ‘that’s fine Mr. Poirier………..you want to leave…..all you have to do, is get by me….’ I had summoned the courage and energy at that point to right myself in my seat. I was frozen, absolutely mortified and frankly, I thought once he dispatches with Poirier we’re all next. The silence in the room was deafening. It was the proverbial ten seconds that felt like the final 34 for Team Canada in game eight the September before. I knew Poirier from hockey. I knew what type of guy he was. He took on all comers, instigated most of them and was fearless. But that day, he stood there, frozen in time, books in hand, sizing up Fr. Nugent. There is zero doubt in my mind, absolutely zero, less than zero, that had he made a move to leave his only departure would have been horizontally. This for me was one of several epic moments that I try and explain to my children by way of saying, if I had a time machine and could put some of your friends in it I’d send you back to Pius in the early 70’s. Mr. Poirier retreated, marginally at first, a small step back, then, after a moments more hesitation perhaps to summon what bravado he felt he still had, he turned, walked back to his seat. To his credit, Fr. Nugent went to the front of the class and began that days’ lesson. There was no theatrics, no isolation of Mr. Poirier or any singling out. Math class, circa September 1973 continued in Fr. Nugent’s class that day and not only the memory but the feeling of fear for what could have happened is still crystal clear with me to this day. Vividly. Post script; as we converse on this, we know and will say for others reading that Fr. Nugent passed away last week. When I heard the news I was driving. I had to pull over. I was on the side of the road, blinker on, cell of course buzzing and whirring nonstop as it always does yet I just totally ignored it and digested the fact that this man was one to remember. And I thought of his many visits to our home on the Kars Road, of his friendship as I returned to Pius several times, before the renovation specifically to drop in and see him, of his presiding figure at mass at St. Monica’s and of having him as a teacher in grade 12…and grade 9 and of course, that day; the day when Mr. Poirier had a choice. May he rest in peace. He was part of the Pius legacy 100% and I’m so, so thankful for experiencing all that he had to offer as a teacher, as a Priest and as a friend.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 13:52:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015