[longest draft version of Crisafulli Local Hero column]
John Crisafulli
“I hope you’re calling the right person,” said John Crisafulli when asked to be the subject this Local Hero column. Crisafulli, who received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for service in the Korean War, worked for 35 years as a teacher and principal in Natick schools.
The son of immigrants from Sicily, he was born in Natick at a house just two streets away from his present home. He attended Oak Grove School, now Johnson School, when it was an old wooden building with three teachers teaching two grades each. From there he went to Coolidge Junior High and then the old High School downtown.
After graduation he joined the Marine Corps. “I had a chance to go to Springfield College, but I guess I wasn’t ready for college at the time,” Crisafulli said. Friends from the high school football team joined the Marine Corps ahead of him and a neighbor he talked to served in the Marine Corps during World War II. By joining, he also followed an older brother into the Navy without having to serve on a ship.
“It just happened that shortly after I joined the Korean War broke out,” Crisafulli said. He joined in August of 1950 “and the end of December I was on my way to Korea.” He volunteered for the Special Forces of the First Marine Division and got in. The group of 22 harassed the enemy with killing raids in groups of only eight or nine and acted as the point group on offenses. Shot in the right hip on June 1, 1951, Crisafulli recuperated in Japan and volunteered to return to combat in July when soldiers were needed. His group no longer in existence – “June 1 we sort of got beat up,” he said – he continued fighting as a regular Marine.
“You ever heard the expression ‘War is hell’? It really is. Because usually in war you’re taking life,” Crisafulli said. “It’s not a pleasant thing.. to do. And you hope you don’t get killed yourself.”
“The greatest resource we have in this world is the human being. Who knows, when a person is killed, what potential that person may have to solve some of the problems we’re having,” Crisafulli said. “So every time a life is taken without that person having the chance or the ability to live to their potential I think we all suffer. We all lose by that. That’s my regret of.. of any war.”
“I had a difficult time after coming home. ... Y’know when you’re 19 and 20 years old and you’ve experienced a lot of tragedy.. it took me a while to get over that. I did do some drinking [?] but Father Foley at St. Patrick’s Parish, he was there when I was at high school and he was still there when I got back. so.. He sort of helped me a great deal. He tutored me quite a bit, counciled me. But I did work a year and my father was a laborer at.. my father was working at the quartermaster lab. That was being built during the 19.. well it was going on in 1953 but they had probably started in 1952.. or thereabouts. In any case when I got discharged in August my father was .. the construction was still going on at the Natick Labs .. and he told me that a gentleman working there with the engineering department was going back to school and that there was an opening there, so he said why don’t you see if you can get the job. So I went and talked to the engineers and.. I wasn’t an engineer or anything but they needed someone to like run transits and y’know do.. so a gentleman there took me out with a transit, and I did fine, and I got the job. So I worked there for about a year. and at the same time Father Foley was helping me and talked me into taking the college boards to Boston College which I did. And I got accepted and I went to Boston College”
“I was working at William J. Hamilton in Wellesley, drilling and blasting. Normally we worked six days a week, on Saturdays, including Saturdays. One Saturday I took Saturday off and Coolidge field I don’t know if you know where Coolidge field is down here well we used to play football there years ago but.. So when I took that Saturday off I normally went to the fields and played basketball or baseball or whatever. So that particular Saturday, because it was a nice day like today .. it was a gorgeous day.. Betty, who is my wife, was playing tennis with some of her lady friends girl friends And I happened to know one of the girls so I .. she [Betty] sort of caught my eye and I went and asked her who she was and got her phone number and called her .. that’s how I met her. Had I gone to work that day, Ben, ’cause Betty my wife lived in East Natick and I’m sure she’s not down in this neck of the woods too often – had I gone to work that day I probably would never have met her . but and the rest is history after that we started going together. She was going to Bridgewater. She’s youn- three years younger than I am but because I went into the service she was ahead of me in college so she graduated a year ahead of me.”
“We got married my last year in college. We had five children, four boys and one girl. .. They’re great people. And we have six grandchildren... Five boys and one girl. [we laugh].”
He went to Boston College on the G.I. Bill. “That was a nice thing because I’m sure a lot of people across the country benefited from that, the G.I. Bill, gave them an opportunity, those that fought for the country, to at least get an education.”
“After I graduated of course I was fortunate and got a job at the Natick school department. [..] Well I worked for the department for department for 35 years before I retired. Twenty of that was in the classroom. The last fifteen years I was principal of the- well I was principal first of the East School for some ten, eleven years. Then when 2 ½ was passed the school had to sort of reorganize because of the funds.. so a number of the principals had to go back to teaching, I wasn’t the only one .. and So I taught at Cole for one year and then the following year I was made principal of Brown and Cole.. and then of course they closed the Cole school so I was just principal of the Brown school.. until I retired in 1992 I think it was.”
“I’m enjoying retirement,” he said. “You’re not tied into a clock or an assignment that you have to do. You have choices, that part’s good. But you have to keep busy. I think if you don’t keep your mind and body active that’s when you really get old.”
“I make Nantucket baskets,” he said. “And I volunteer in the town; I belong to most of the veterans’ organizations. I help out, and sometimes I help the library. I try to stay somewhat active in the community.”
“I think every teacher probably the greatest thrill they have is to y’know when the light comes on and the students says [kids voice:] ‘Oh I got it’ kind of thing. I think the greatest joy is when you can see students realize that they’re learning.”
“On occasion even when I was principal I’d go in and give the teacher a break and teach a class.”
“It really makes you feel good. Especially if you see them a year later and they can remember it. Yeah, sometimes when I have students come back, years later, say “yeah, I remember all those prepositions. You had us memorize those.” Things like that. And to see them turn into fine young people. We don’t get paid for it, but it’s good.”
I think the experience helped me a great deal. Even though it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
“My experience in Korea helped me make up my mind that I wanted to do something that would help people. So I chose education,” he said. “Trying to help people to develop their talents. It’s helping people grow to their potential versus taking life.”
“It would be a better world I think, Ben, if each person tried to help those around them be all they can be. We’d have less problems.
When asked what he was most proud of, he said “Being a father. Being a dad to five young people and six grandchildren.”