Tom Sheehan Had Lifelong Commitment To Education

Tom Edward Sheehan demonstrated a commitment to education for all children and a passion for breaking down the barriers that hindered this ideal.

The retired Seattle School District administrator died May 24 of prostate cancer at age 71.

His attitude toward education perhaps was formed back in 1950 at Cusick High School in Pend Oreille County, said his wife of 47 years, Caroline Griffin.

Mr. Sheehan was hired as a teacher and athletic coach, but was told by school-district officials not to expect much of the students - after all, most became laborers and only a few went on to college.

Mr. Sheehan didn't buy it. And by the time he left the school district in 1954 - to take a teaching job at Meany Junior High School in Seattle - the majority of the senior class was college-bound. Griffin said her husband refused to hold students to a different standard simply because society had low expectations of them.

It was a lesson that the Irish-American Seattle native carried with him back to Seattle and its decidedly more urban school district, which by the 1960s had experienced the racial turmoil similar to that seen in other large cities.

One of his Washington state history students at Meany was a not-so-confident African-American ninth-grader named Charles Mitchell, who went on to become president of Seattle Central Community College in 1987.

Mitchell has credited Mr. Sheehan with helping build his self-esteem and for teaching him the value of education.

Mr. Sheehan's concern for the progress of African-American students also was evident in 1986, when, as acting principal at Meany, he was appointed director of the Seattle Schools Seek Summer Program, which offered black teens a respite from the racial tension brewing between themselves and the predominantly white district.

The program, in part a response to calls for greater attention to the needs of black school children - offered academic, vocational and cultural awareness courses.

By the following school year, Mr. Sheehan had been transferred to a permanent position as principal of the troubled Sharples Junior High School, where reports were rampant of student-on-student violence.

At a public meeting on the issue, Mr. Sheehan was lambasted by parents concerned that the school wasn't doing enough to bring order. The principal, visibly disturbed, was quoted as saying he was "horribly depressed" by the situation and promised to do more.

"He did not have a phony bone in his body," his wife said, recalling that meeting. Mr. Sheehan always wanted parents and students to know he understood - and felt - their frustrations.

In the mid-1970s, when the district voluntarily began school desegregation, Mr. Sheehan was made a government liaison for the district, which involved speaking before federal government committees and applying for grants to fund special educational programs. His official title then was director of Compensatory Education, a job he held until retiring in 1980.

Four of his children carry on his commitment to education: Timothy Sheehan is a teacher at Whitman Middle School; Christie Spielman is an administrator at Holy Names Academy; Mary Navalinski teaches special education at Northshore Elementary in Woodinville, and Michael Sheehan is a Head Start teacher in Everett.

Along with those children and his widow, Mr. Sheehan's survivors include his sister, Peggy Manning, of Seattle; his son, Thomas Sheehan, of Seattle; his son, Patrick Sheehan, of Portland; his daughter, Caroline Sheehan, of Seattle; and nine grandchildren.

A memorial Mass for Mr. Sheehan will be held tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Church, 732 18th Ave. E.

Remembrances may be made to the Jubilee Women's Center, 620 18th Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98112; or to the SIDS Foundation of Washington, in care of Children's Hospital, Box C-5371, Seattle, 98105.