“Math guys are typically on the awkward, more reserved side,” according to a former New Jersey math teacher.
But not Ray Levandowski.
“The kids absolutely loved him,” Frank Churick, who retired from North Hunterdon High School in 2018, said Thursday. “Whenever he taught this theory — it was called the sandwich theorem — he would get a sandwich from the cafeteria and slam it on the board, and ... he came in with water guns chasing football players around the room one day. Just memories. He made memories for people.”
Raymond A. Levandowski, 73, was the victim of a fatal hit-and-run accident Monday evening in Holland Township, and local police said a suspect was arrested on Wednesday.
The beloved teacher, father and husband worked in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees High School District from 1984 to 2007, where he served as the supervisor of the math department and as an advanced calculus teacher at North Hunterdon Regional High School.
“He was a legend,” said Marjorie Paul, who had worked with Levandowski for many years. “He was such a good man. He would go out of his way to help everybody. He came off as gruff to the students initially, maybe in the beginning of the year, but they loved him and he taught them well.”
Gregory Cottrell, principal of North Hunterdon Regional High School, described Lavendowski as “an outstanding teacher who touched the lives of thousands of students.”
“At North Hunterdon Regional High School, we mourn the loss of a beloved and respected teacher,” Cottrell said. “He was known for always having a smile on his face. The students loved him, and he was involved in many different aspects of the school beyond just teaching.”
Nicole Smith, a student of the Class of 1989 and former counselor at North Hunterdon Regional High School, said Levandowski frequently spent his lunches working with students, “chalk in one hand and sandwich with saran wrap in the other.”
“‘You know that movie ‘Stand and Deliver’ that was done in ‘89? If I recollect it correctly, there was an A.P. Calc teacher out in Los Angeles who took a bunch of kids that looked like nobodies, and supposedly this man made everyone score a perfect 5 on the exam. And we were like ‘Wait, Dr. Lev does that all the time,’” Smith said.
“And it’s not because the kids were all that smart,” she added. “We worked because of him.”
‘Best teacher I’ve ever had’
Like Smith, Carrie Huff Souto, a graduate of the Class of 1993, said Levandowski had “a gift” for inspiring his students.
“He was the best teacher I’ve ever had in all of my schooling,” Huff Souto said. “He believed in his students so much, and made you want to succeed for him, and actually made you want to learn, in a way that no other teacher had inspired me. And math was not my love, but it became my love in working with him.”
Levandowski had a signature phrase that he would say to motivate students as they worked on difficult math problems, Huff Souto recollected.
“He would have us get up and explain our work to the class, and he would say, ‘Oh we like this. We like this a lot,’” Huff Souto said. “And he would say it all the time with a smirky smile. And he would just make you feel really good about what you were doing.”
“He became famous at school for ‘I like this a lot,’” Daniel Peiffer, a graduate of the Class of 1996, echoed. “He would give us challenging calculus problems, and he was very, very helpful at helping us figure it out. And when we would get to the answer, he said, ‘I like it a lot.’”
An associate director of marketing at a biotechnology company in San Diego, Peiffer labeled Levandowski as one of the few teachers who inspired him to consider pursuing a career in the math and sciences.
“I went to elementary school, middle school, high school, college at Rutgers — I even went to graduate school and got my Ph.D — I’ve had lots of teachers, and he is one of the very few that I actually vividly remember,” Peiffer said. “I just remember him being very engaged with the students in what could possibly be perceived as a dry, boring subject. He was very witty and funny ... he was really on a different level.”
Students were not the only individuals at North Hunterdon whose lives changed for the better because of Levandowski. Paul began working at North Hunterdon High School in 1974. In 1980, she left her job to raise her children — and when she was ready to return roughly 15 years later, Levandowski was the reason she was able to stay.
Marjorie Paul and Ray Levandowski.Courtesy of Marjorie Paul
“I covered for somebody who was out on leave. I had done a good job, and there was an opening so I applied for a job. And the superintendent in the meantime had passed a rule that you had to have a B+ average or higher to get the job at North Hunterdon. And I did not; I had a B or B-,” Paul recalled. “Even though I had six years of experience in the school, even though I had just done six weeks of advanced classes and taught them ... the superintendent was not going to hire me for the full job.”
“And Ray went to bat for me. He stood up to the superintendent, and I got the job,” Paul said.
Frank Forte, a current mathematics professor at Raritan Valley Community College, gained his first teaching job in 1998 when Levandowski hired him.
“He was a fantastic guy,” Forte said. “Before he retired, he suggested I started getting into teaching calculus courses, and that’s still part of what I do here at the college. In fact, I’m still using some of his old worksheets.”
Paul, Forte and Churick each emphasized Levandowski unwaveringly supported other teachers throughout his career.
“He stood up to administration and other superintendents and protected us so we could do our jobs. He believed in us so much,” Paul said. “And if you proved to him you were a good teacher, he had your back. And because he had your back, you were more likely to be a good teacher.”
“He was the one who really helped me out for those first couple of years being a teacher … he would spend time after school going through and looking at lesson plans and giving me advice, and he really deeply cared not only about the students that he worked with, but about the faculty that he worked with too,” Forte said.
“He would stay until 3, 4, 5 o’clock just going through and making sure we had all the support we needed ... you would see him hours after school helping those students out too. Because he was one of the good guys in teaching,” he added.
‘He had our backs on everything’
“Working for him as a boss, he was a great boss, a great man,” Churick said. “He had our backs on everything. And the kids were first and foremost, and the teachers were second.”
Churick said that Levandowski hand-picked him out of “a bunch of people on staff” to teach A.P. Calculus after he retired.
“I was a younger guy on the staff at the time, so I felt honored that he chose me to work with him in his last year. And then I taught that class up until I retired (in 2018),” Churick said.
Churick and his peers at the school shared an important philosophy that he said Levandowski encapsulated.
“You’re teaching them math and math is important, but at the end, when you’ve taught everybody and they’re done with your class, do they remember the math, or do they remember the times they have with you? And he was always one of the people that you remembered the times you had with him,” he said.
Still, in reflecting on those joyous times, Churick and others couldn’t help but recall how unjustifiably soon they had come to an end.
“He’s such a good man, and just trying to stay in shape and be physical — to go for a walk. And to have that happen is horrendous,” Churick said.
“I’m sure in knowing him he was especially careful with (COVID-19). This super nice guy, just trying to change up his routine, trying to get some exercise, trying to breathe a little bit — to have to end his life in such a sad and tragic way ... is heartbreaking,” Huff Souto said.
Funeral services and interment will be private. Arrangements are under the care of the Johnson-Walton Funeral Home, 24 Church Road, in Milford.
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Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.
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