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HIGH POINT — It didn’t matter that Michael “Pop” Herschel was 75 when he began his teaching career at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in High Point.

His fifth-grade religion classes were exciting and innovative. Students loved Pop’s classes.

As a volunteer teacher, Herschel’s compensation was seeing his students grasp the Christian concepts of how to live their lives.

“If you say you are going to teach religion, that is a turnoff,” he said. “I don’t lecture, and I don’t get hung up on detail — trivia.”

His objective was to “bring students closer to God,” he said.

He retired in December after teaching for nearly seven years, having resisted quitting for a long time despite health problems.

Herschel, who will be 83 next month, has melanoma, has difficulty walking and can’t drive his car. His friend Wally Haarsgaard, a deacon at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, is teaching the class.
“I certainly am honored to follow him,” Haarsgaard said. “He has left a big void to fill.

“I really learned his dedication when I asked him to come play golf one day, and he politely turned me down because he had to teach the kids.”

Herschel never gave up easily.

“He has had so much adversity in his life, but that didn’t slow him down,” said Linda MacGuire, lead fifth-grade teacher. “He didn’t have to come to IHM each morning, rain or shine, bad weather or a sunny day. He came here each day for the children, to show them the face of Jesus and his love.”

Herschel got fifth-grader Jack Lorenz “started on doing good in the community,” Jack said. “You were the one that inspired me to do better. We love you because you took the time to come to IHM School to teach us about religion. This is what I like about you — you dedicated your time to us.”

Classes with Pop, a moniker given to him by his daughter-in-law Leida Herschel that caught on with everyone who knows the affable Michael Herschel II, were exciting because he challenged students to think.

Herschel made the class a discussion about anything the students wanted to discuss.

“Give me a word,” he’d say. A word or subject would come from a student, and the class was soon in high gear. Students would talk about how the subject related to a religious perspective.

“We did a whole class of Tiger Woods,” he said. “He’s the example of a rich man who made bad decisions; we talked about that.”
Students have a textbook and a Bible, but Herschel brought another dimension to their studies: practical application. “We studied the Ten Commandments, the eight Beatitudes and the seven sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, reconciliation, confirmation, marriage, holy orders and anointing the sick). That covers the do’s, the don’ts and the how-to’s, he said.

At the core of Herschel’s teaching were those class discussions and his sharing the many years of experience traveling around the world selling kerosene cook stoves in Third World countries.

“Contrary to what you are supposed to do in sales, I talked politics and religion with the people I met,” Herschel said. “I made friends all over the world. I encountered many cultures and religious systems, and every single one made me appreciate capitalism and free enterprise. They also reaffirmed my Catholic faith.”

Sharing many of those world experiences had an effect on his students.

“You made me think in so many ways that I’ve never thought of before,” said Maddie Ring, a fifth-grader.

“I still remember all of the amazing stories you told,” said Olivia Forish, another fifth-grader. “From those stories, I have learned about how amazing your life is and how you have explored the world.”

“I didn’t try to convert them (students),” Herschel said. “I had an advantage because almost anything that came up, I could relate a story from my experience.”

MacGuire said, “He was so kind and caring to the student and cared much more about what they learned than the grades they received.”

She said she also learned from Herschel “just from sitting in the classroom listening.”

Herschel never attended college. His formal education was the 12 years he spent in Catholic schools while growing up in Cincinnati, he said.

“I graduated from Xavier High School, and that was like a college education back then,” he said.

Imagine studying Greek in high school, he said.

His broader education came in his traveling experiences. Herschel left the Navy after the end of World War II and got a job loading railroad box cars for a Cincinnati company that made kerosene cook stoves. During his 25 years there, he not only became a vice president of the company, but also a world traveler. He spent 20 years in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa selling stoves and making friends.

The Cincinnati company went out of business, and he moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., to work another 25 years for U.S. Stove Co.
Herschel and his wife, Mary Ann, moved to High Point in 1995, and she passed away 10 years ago. The Herschels had three daughters and a son.

“He has left a legacy with the boys and girls he has taught,” Haarsgaard said. “I have met former students who have said they remembered what Pop Herschel said about living your life in accordance with the Gospel.”

Maria Rogaski, now a seventh-grader, said, “You were and still are an inspiration to me. You helped me get a little bit closer to God, and I’m still growing on that every day because of you.”

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com