SAYREVILLE – The Sayreville School District is mourning the loss of an administrator whose career in education spanned more than four decades.
Thomas Gentile, the district’s supervisor of Social Studies, related arts and extracurricular activities, died on Dec. 11, 2017, at age 64. He had been a member of the district since 2006.
In addition to his tenure in Sayreville, Gentile had worked at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City since 1976, according to Superintendent of Schools Richard Labbe.
According to his obituary, Gentile was a resident of Secaucus, where he had lived for 34 years. Before moving to Secaucus, he was born and resided in Jersey City.
Prior to his death, Gentile was set to retire from the district. The Board of Education had honored his retirement, which was to be effective Jan. 1, at a meeting on Nov. 21.
At the board of education meeting on Dec. 19, board President Kevin Ciak informed the audience of Gentile’s death and asked that a moment of silence be held in his memory.
“This week, we’re a district in mourning,” Ciak said. “We lost a dear member of the Sayreville family. Tom Gentile, who was our director of humanities and related arts here in the district, unexpectedly and suddenly passed away.
“Mr. Gentile was an individual who not only did a phenomenal job for Sayreville, but he built a culture of family among not only his own department, within the history department of the district, but within the high school and the entire district family, as well as with his fellow administrators. He built the type of culture that we all talk about in Sayreville that we want to be a part of, that we want to work in, and that we want students to feel that they are a part of.
“He was a very big advocate for civics education, a strong supporter of the American Legion Boys State program, the Girls State program, [and] he helped us organize a civics program at our middle school,” Ciak said. “[He was] a very big supporter of our Back-to-School for Legislators Day, which he organized every single year and he really hoped that he would not only teach students history, but he would also teach them to be good democratic citizens within our society.
“And anyone who’s ever interacted with him, no matter how many times you saw him, no matter how long you’ve known him, he would always approach you and there was always a title in front of [your name], showing the respect that he had for all of the people that he worked with and how much he treasured here working in Sayreville,” Ciak said.
Contact Matthew Sockol at msockol@newspapermediagroup.com.
