Even after 60 years in education, Thomas Rocchi sometimes wonders if he made a difference.
The answer came in hugs at the door of Roy A. Hunt Elementary School in Arnold on Monday, where Rocchi, the school’s principal, welcomed back members of Valley High School’s graduating Class of 2021.
Dressed in their caps and gowns, it was the graduates’ first stop as they paraded through the district’s three elementary schools ahead of their graduation ceremony Thursday.
Rocchi, 82, had been their principal at nearby H.D. Berkey, when the students were in fourth and fifth grades. He still recognized them.
“At one time, I was taller than them,” Rocchi said.
As New Kensington-Arnold’s students celebrated the end of the 2020-21 school year, Rocchi was boxing up his office at Hunt. The graduates are entering the next phase of their lives. Rocchi is entering retirement.
“What a beautiful road I’ve traveled,” Rocchi said Monday. “Today assured me: I did make a difference.”
While his retirement is officially effective at the end of June, with vacation and personal time his last day at Hunt was Thursday.
“I enjoyed this so much,” he said. “Being with the children and the professional staff has been so rewarding for me. It was hard to walk away.”
While Rocchi and his wife, Pamela, have two sons, two grandchildren and three great grandchildren, Rocchi’s extended family, known as “Rocchi’s Kids,” is much larger, spanning generations in the New Kensington and Arnold communities.
“Principals have an understated impact on kids, and, over the years, Tom has been the school principal for tens of thousands of kids,” acting Superintendent Jon Banko said. “You would be hard-pressed to not be able to find generations of members of the community that attended schools and are not familiar with Mr. Rocchi.”
That includes staff and teachers at Hunt, such as building secretary Nicole Henry. A 1992 graduate, Rocchi had been her principal for sixth grade.
“He’s amazing,” she said. “He’s a great leader. He really, really cares about the students. We’re going to miss him.”
Carrie Distilo, a 1990 graduate and sixth grade teacher at Hunt, is another former student.
“I’m glad I had the opportunity to teach under him,” she said. “He’s a great man to work under. He’s very soft spoken but he gets across his points. He’s very understanding.”
She is sad to see him leave.
“We’ve had such a great rapport,” Distilo said. “The kids just love him. I’d like to teach under him longer than I have. He’s a good man.”
Rocchi began his career in 1961, teaching fifth grade in the Arnold School District. He graduated from Arnold in 1956, going on to earn a degree in elementary education at California State College in California, Pa.
The Arnold and New Kensington school districts merged in 1965.
After five years in the classroom, Rocchi moved to administration, first as an elementary curriculum coordinator, then assistant elementary principal and eventually principal. He was even the district’s acting superintendent for a short time in 2012.
He was an elementary principal for most of his career, at one time overseeing half of the district’s then 10 elementary schools from H.D. Berkey, where he kept his office for 50 years.
The district closed elementary schools as its enrollment declined, and grades were moved around the remaining buildings.
Rocchi moved to Hunt five years ago to replace Patrick Nee, who was named high school principal.
Neither Berkey nor Hunt, the buildings and the men they are named for, is unfamiliar to Rocchi. He was born and grew up in a house nearby on Kenneth Avenue in Arnold. Berkey, then Arnold’s Victoria Avenue School, was his elementary and junior high; Hunt was Arnold’s high school.
Berkey bears the name of the first superintendent Rocchi worked under. He was a junior in high school when that building was dedicated to Roy A. Hunt, a co-founder of Alcoa.
“He came and all the students were there,” he said.
As a teacher, Rocchi said he could influence a couple dozen children. As principal, he could reach hundreds. Not one to lose touch in an office, he’d see them when they arrived, ate lunch with them and saw them off at the end of the day.
“The most important thing is they taught me,” he said. “I can honestly say I probably learned more from the kids than they learned from me.”
Rocchi said he missed the students when they were moved to online learning because of the covid pandemic, which he knew was difficult for some of them.
“I have to praise the teachers, the support staff and especially the kids — we made it,” Rocchi said. “There was a lot of adversity. Everyone really pitched in. I think we came through it fairly well.”
He remembers when an all-purpose room at Berkey was used as a community inoculation site for the polio vaccine, developed in Pittsburgh by Dr. Jonas Salk.
“They didn’t look at it as a choice. They looked at it as a necessity,” he said. “There wasn’t any question. They came.”
Asked about his plans for retirement, Rocchi said he’ll take a month off before getting into volunteer work and consulting.
Distilo said a school should be named for Rocchi.
“He’s dedicated his life to the school,” she said. “There should be something for him. He deserves it.”
But Rocchi isn’t one to have a fuss made over him.
“I really am not the type to have a building named after me,” he said. “Having a building unless you get a hug means nothing.”
Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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