Gently Guiding Generations St. Patrick’s Kindergarten Teacher Retires After 38 Years Of Telling Tots ‘You Are All Number One’

Each day for the last 38 years, Hillyard kindergartners got the talk from Rosemary Procunier.

“I tell them they are all number one,” she said

Procunier’s given that simple message to more than 1,000 children. She said it to Nickolus Uhlenkott last week, and told his father, Brian, in 1972.

“She’s just great with kids,” said Brian Uhlenkott. “It’s really neat that Nickolus got to have her.”

Procunier finished her career last week at St. Patrick’s School, her alma mater, which is within walking distance of her childhood home, her current home and her first teaching job. She’s lived in Hillyard all of her 69 years.

“She’s had such an impact on the neighborhood,” said Alice Buckley, who has known Procunier for 60 years.

Not surprisingly, Procunier has taught the parents and children of many families. The Uhlenkotts say they enrolled Nickolus at St. Pat’s, the Hillyard neighborhood Catholic school, in part because of Procunier.

“I think people want for their own child the positive experience that they had in their class,” said St. Pat’s principal Joanne Duffy. “People talk about the great experience they had with Rosemary. They want the same experience for their own child. I would want my child to have Rosemary.”

The daughter of a Hillyard railroad engineer, Procunier grew up on East Diamond with five brothers and sisters. After graduating from St. Pat’s, she attended Rogers High School, where she was a champion drum major.

“I can still see Rosie in her purple and white skirt,” said Pat McGinn, who has known Procunier since the 1930s. “I think she was one of the best drum majorettes ever at Rogers. I never saw her drop a baton.”

After graduating from Holy Names College, Procunier landed her first job at a kindergarten in the Hillyard Baptist Church, at the corner of Crestline and Wabash.

After 19 years, St. Pat’s called. She has taught there 19 years.

More than 200 of her former students threw a surprise party for Procunier last weekend, sharing stories of her gentle and encouraging teaching style.

“She has a wonderful way of letting each child know how special they are and how much she loves them,” said Duffy.

Procunier says she remembers almost every student’s name and face. She surprised a former student bagging her groceries at Safeway last month by remembering who he was.

Her husband has wanted her to retire for several years, but it wasn’t until she broke her hip last summer that she regretfully decided to leave.

She marvels at today’s students, who she says are smarter, savvier and, perhaps, quicker to hit each other. When she started teaching, most didn’t know the alphabet; Sesame Street changed that.

Her lessons have remained consistent. She teaches her students to respect elders, to be kind to classmates and to believe in themselves.

She plans to return as a volunteer aide next year, and expects to feel the same first-day jitters she’s always felt.

“I hope they are prepared for the first grade,” she said, watching her students bustle out the door for the last time.

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