While Mr. Lynch is no longer a teacher, he is still definitely a core part of the BCA faculty. He has worked at BCA for over 15 years, and during this time, he has served as a teacher, coach, and an administrator, and even took a large role in developing the IB Curriculum. Mr. Lynch discussed with The Academy Chronicle about his experiences as a priest, his career at BCA, and love for his family.
Where did you spend your childhood?
Well, I grew up in Fairfield, New Jersey. I was born in Fort Lauderdale. My father was in the Yankee organization; he was playing in the Yankee farm system at the time. He had injuries that ended his career in baseball, but my parents are both from New Jersey and they moved back afterwards. I lived in Verona until I was 5, and then lived grew up in Fairfield, [which is] in Essex County.
So you’ve stayed here all your life.
Oh yeah, my grandparents for the most part all grew up in New Jersey, so we have deep roots in Essex county.
Do you have any siblings?
Two younger sisters. One is [a] year behind me in school and the other one is 4 years behind me.
You must be very close to them.
Yeah, we fought sometimes growing up. But we’re all pretty close in age and we’re very close. One sister lives in San Francisco now, but she comes back often.
Oh my father lives in San Francisco for work, actually.
Oh, is that right? It’s a beautiful city. If I have to leave this area – I don’t plan to – but if I had to, I would pick San Francisco.
As a child, did you have a nickname?
Not really…I mean, everyone [would] just call me Vic. Nothing ever stuck…I mean, I think that when you’re young, you call your friends all kind of different things. No, it was just always Vic.
As you were growing up, did you have a hero or role model that you really looked up to?
Well, I think certainly my parents. I think my first baseball hero was Thurman Munson, who was the catcher for the Yankees—he was captain at the time. In terms of a public figure that had a big impact on me, it was Ronald Reagan. If my parents were my heroes while I grew up, the public figure that was my hero would be Ronald Reagan.
Considering your father’s job, you must have grown up around sports.
Well, his career as a player was over by the time I was about one and half years old. But he actually—his second career was as a teacher and coach. He taught history at Cedar Grove High School, and he coached there. Yes, so that’s how I kind of grew up around sports. When I was a young kid, on Saturdays I would go with my father to practice whether it was basketball or baseball, and I played basketball in high school. I played baseball all the way through little league. A lot of my fathers’ friends were also coaches, so sports were always a very important part of my life.
So, as for high school, what was your favorite subject?
History.
Well that makes sense.
I majored in history in college. I went to collage with the intention of being a priest, which I would be. As an undergraduate I majored in history, then for the four years in the seminary I, of course, studied theology and then I spent five years in priesthood.
What were the main activities that you participated in about the time of high school?
Well, the biggest one was basketball.
So sports.
Yeah, sports was the main…yes.
When you were in high school, what did you want to be when you grew up? Was it always a history teacher?
I would say that, until I was…if you asked me when I was very young what I was going to be when I grew up, I would have told you a Yankee. I would say around 8th grade, I started thinking about the priesthood. I was pretty consistent with that throughout high school saying I wanted to be priest.
Can you share a funny high school memory?
Lets see. I’m sure there were a lot.
You know, it didn’t seem funny at that time, but I remember that my coach scheduled a scrimmage, for basketball, against Clifford Scott High School who, at the time, was one of the powerhouses in the state. I was playing center that day, 6′ 1″. The point guard at Clifford Scott was about 6’4″. I remember having a jump ball against a guy that was 6’10”. I think when I jumped up I was looking at his belly button. When they came, we were sitting in our locker room and you saw these kids, walking by. Like I said, the center was about 6’10”. Every player, every starter on that team was at least a few inches taller than everybody on our team. I remember when they walked past us, and as you looked around the room, you could see everybody with their jaw just, kind of, hanging open. I just said to my team, “Don’t worry guys, they’re no bigger than the Lakers.” And they beat us in that scrimmage by—I think it was something like—78 points.
Wow. Well, it’s a good memory now.
My teammates, who I still have some contact with, we still laugh about it all these years later. That’s a long time.
So did you go to college here in the East Coast?
Yeah, so if you want to start studying for the priesthood in the sense of college, and you’re in this area, the Archdiocese actually run universities, Seton Hall. So I went to Seton Hall, and I was in the college seminary for four years as an undergraduate, majoring in history, and then four years at the major seminary at Seton hall. So I spent eight years there preparing for the priesthood.
Did you have any jobs while you were in college?
You know, I did. I remember for two summers I worked at a supermarket. Another three summers I worked in the warehouse at the vitamin company. And then, after that—this would be after my junior year in college—all my summers were spent working at churches, for the most part.
Oh, how was the vitamin company?
Well, my mother worked there and got me the job. It was fun—there was a good group of people in the warehouse. We had a good time. There was a bunch of people my own age—mostly guys, a few girls—and we had fun. It made you appreciate an education; I certainly wouldn’t want to do that for the rest of my life. We were just filling orders from pharmacies. You know, we would walk around the warehouse, and if the pharmacy wanted 12 bottles of Vitamin C, 24 multivitamins, you would just count it out, put it in the box, and send it out. Yeah, it made me appreciate an education, and I also had fun with the people I worked with.
After college, you went to seminary.
Yes.
What led you to that decision?
I believe the vocation—the idea of a calling from God. The way I experienced that was a growing interest in the priesthood as a job or vocation, an interest in what the church was doing, and seeing it as a vehicle to make some impact, and do good things for people. And I wasn’t disappointed; there are always opportunities to be there with people when they really needed it.
That must have been very rewarding.
It was; even in college, some of the experiences I had…I remember during the 86’, 87’ school year—and this is around the time that AIDS was really becoming a major story—and I was working, essentially, a morning a week. I would go to St. Michael’s Hospital, and I would spend time with the AIDS patients. At that time, that was still when there was so much mystery about it; there was so much shame about it. And, to see these people, who had been abandoned by families, who were dying from a very painful disease, to be able to be with them, and talk with them…you know, to just let them see that not everybody had abandoned them. All of these years later, I am grateful that I had chance to do that.
And it wasn’t just hospital work; it was sometimes a lot of fun, working with high school youth groups, teaching classes, and as time went on, when I was in the priesthood, a lot of people would come to you, with all the challenges of life. You were there with people sometimes, at the moment of death. But you were also there for the baptisms, for the weddings. I had the opportunity to be there with people during their lowest lows, their highest highs, and it was very rewarding to journey with people in that way.
So then, what made you leave the priesthood?
I can sum it up in two works: mandatory celibacy. I can tell you that most of the priests, who leave, leave for that reason. When you start out, you look at this as an 18 or 19 year old might; the way that you look at it changes. To make long story short, in my mind and my experience, I was doing God’s will by leaving, and getting married and having a family. I would say that is foundation of my life. I would say that I believed my heart, and that I made the right call. As a result, my faith is deeper and I believe better being married and having children than it was when I was in the priesthood.
I know that Pope Francis said recently that the whole idea of mandatory celibacy was up for discussion. If that changes, I guess I would invite Academy students to come hear me celebrate Mass, wherever I am.
I bet a lot of people would come!
Maybe, just to check it out. But I will say, when I first started here, a lot of people said, “Wow, you were a priest and now you’re a teacher; that must be very different.” But I always said, “Not really.” I always felt that the priesthood is a teaching vocation. So in that sense, I believe that my entire life—what I did in college, in graduate school, between the priesthood and being at this school—I believe that my life work has been that of a teacher.
So did you enjoy teaching at the Academies?
I love teaching. I also love being part of a vision of what a school like this could be. And that was why I made transition from the classroom to administration—to be a part of the driving [force of] a wider vision.
I believe that this school is truly special. I have no doubt when I am in my 80’s, retired, I’m going to be looking and reading about all of the Academy students, the forming of Academy alumni, who are leaders in government, in medicine, in business, and law, and education, and I will be feeling proud I was a part of all that.
What specific changes were there since you first came to BCA?
The school was really built on a foundation of cooperative or project based learning, and when the school first started, as I was getting here, I came in a transitional face. New academies had been added, and so, the structure, when you had, let’s say 40-50 students per class, was kind of a lot more laid back. It was a lot looser. But as you get a larger and larger school, more structure has to be put in place. Also, over the 16 years that I’ve been here, there were laws, court cases, that have just brought us to the point—well known tragic events that have occurred in schools—where we just have to be more safety conscious, more careful. So you do see that. We spend, probably, more time, thinking about the safety of all our students [and] what we have to do to keep our students safe, than there used to be.
So when you were a teacher, what were the first classes that you taught?
Well, I got hired to teach the first classes, in what now would be performing and visual arts, telecom, [and] culinary. The Academies were a little different at that time. The visual [arts were] pretty much same, and performing [arts] would be added on to that. This is going to sound funny, but what is now telecom, when I was here, was automotive. It would be too hard to explain that transition. Eventually, that automotive academy – we used to call power and transportation – transitioned into telecom. So, I taught, what would now be Early America, even though at the time it was a little more thematic. I remember the very first thing I ever taught here was about the Puritans. We went through the cause of American Revolution, the whole civil war period. So that was the first class I taught.
I’ve heard that you began teaching IB courses later on during your career as a teacher.
Yes.
Oh, so how did that happen?
When we were looking at the IB…See, at one time we didn’t offer any classes in the humanities that would make students eligible for advanced credit at universities. We just didn’t believe in the AP [curriculum]. AP humanities classes are all memorization and fill in the blank. I mean that wasn’t preparing our students for humanities classes in the top universities. No one is going to go to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale and sit down for a Literature test with a scan-tron sheet and a #2 pencil to fill in ovals. That’s just not how it’s done. But we understood the desire for advanced credit; I have three kids of my own, and anything that, when they get to college, can make it little cheaper, would be great. So we did our research and we found the IB, and at the time, Mr. Panicucci, who’s now our assistant superintendent for curriculum, was in this building. He did some exploration; a bunch of us went out to West Morris High School, which had been doing this for a long time. Personally, I liked what I saw. I liked the philosophy. So I got trained, and I taught the first IB History classes here. And I just always believed in the IB curriculum. I believed in the global nature of it, I believed in the higher level thinking skills that it challenges students to master. So to me, it was a thrill to become [the] IB Coordinator. Now I got to be involved in the whole program.
As a teacher, were you also ever a club advisor?
I was the debate coach for several years. It is interesting, when, Mrs. Wallace – who is new in the building this year – she was actually in the building several years before me. When I got here she was the head debate coach, and I came on as an assistant. When she went on maternity leave, then I became the debate coach. And then I brought Mr. Russo on board and then, within two years my wife and I had three kids, twins and another child. So, between that, I was finishing up my course work for my educational leadership degree and then I stepped away from the debate team, and Mr. Russo became the head coach. He’s been tremendous. It seems like we win the county championship every year, and he’s a great coach. Also, when I started here, I was the advisor for the Class of 2002; it was during year 99’. Mrs. Crimmel and I started here together. We were class advisors with another teacher who is not here anymore. That was a lot of fun—senior year, lot of hard work. So after that, that’s when I kind of transitioned into more educational leadership where I was part of what we call the principle advisory team, then eventually lead teacher and now administrator.
You chose to be administrator in order to better, I guess, incorporate yourself into being a part of the process of school growth.
What I would say is as a classroom teacher—I have to tell you I love being a classroom teacher. It’s something, that to me, was a sacrifice to give it up. I loved it—I always felt like I had a big role in the type of skills or thinking that I could help students to develop. I could be part of the mission of the history department, really trying to sit down with my colleagues and figure out what is the best way to teach history in the school. And for me administration provides an opportunity now to go from what I was doing in the history department to the wider school. Looking what I can do to promote the success of school, to keep it innovative, to provide student with the best opportunities to move forward, to try to help teachers to become better teachers. To me administration is the – if I look at my career – the next plateau to try to be successful as an educator, to try to make ongoing contribution to the school.
Do you think you will ever go back?
I don’t know. It is funny: how do I see myself retiring? Whether it’s here or whether it’s at another school in our district, or whatever, I would love to retire as a high school principal. It is funny, when I was priesthood my goal was to be a pastor, so somehow I equated – and I think there are a lot of similarities – principal and pastor. They’re very similar positions. So when I started an education, I did want to be a pastor, so now, you know, principal. That’s how I see myself retiring. When I retire from education, I’d like it to be as a principal wherever that is—wherever in the state of New Jersey that is. But if, while doing that, I had an opportunity to teach one section of IB History, I would love it.
What are some of your current hobbies?
An awful lot of it involves my children. You know, sports, of course, for me, are a central part of my life, as my kids play them now. And I really believe that not only the physical activity, which is of course essential for our physical health, but also the teamwork that you develop and the drive, doing whatever it takes, ethically of course, to succeed, really are skills that people need to be successful in life. I really did find that in sports. Sure I love my teams: the Yankees, the Rangers, the Knicks, and the Giants. On top of that, I enjoy doing things with—I’ve always been a big culinary fan—[and] I like to go and find nice places with my wife.
So are you a foodie?
Oh yes, I am a bit of a foodie. I have that as a hobby. I subscribe to Wine Spectator and I’m starting to build a rather modest wine collection. But also, I stay in touch with friends I went to school with; a lot of them are pastors and Catholic parishes in the area. With few of them, I will go out and try a few of the top restaurants in New York City and I always come back, and I go and talk with Chef Jay and Chef B about it. That’s a big hobby also. It is funny when you—I guess I’ll connect this to something I was talking about earlier, with that I believe that I’m doing more as a husband and father to pursue God’s will for me. When you have kids—my twins are 11 and my youngest one is 9, so they are in 5th and 3rd grade—you do make a lot of sacrifices. I always look at the New York Times and read reviews of plays and I’ll look at art collections that are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I think, “Boy would I love to take a Saturday and go there, and just take it all in.” But there’s dance, there’s baseball, there’s softball, there’s this, there’s that, and as a parent you make sacrifices for your children, but because you love your children more than anybody or anything else, there is certain joy that comes with the sacrifice. So, I guess above and beyond anything, it is going with my kids through their activities and helping them to have positive childhood to pursue their dreams—in a sense that is my number one hobby.
Do you have any advice for BCA students, particularly the pre-frosh?
My advice would be to use your time at BCA to pursue what you want to pursue in life. That, I believe is a very individual endeavor. I know sometimes there’s lot of other voices in our lives that want us to do this and want us to do that, but I would say to a student coming in here, there are all types of opportunities in all types of different fields. Even if you’re in the science academy, it doesn’t mean that you can’t audition to be in one of the plays. You may find yourself in the medical academy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take culinary electives. We have all these research labs in all different areas. Take look around what is here and use that to find out what your calling in life is.
Pursue that, and hopefully, make a great contribution to society.