On Monday, April 27, 2015, the Bishop Lynch High School community celebrated Mr. David Post - teacher, mentor and friend - who passed away in July 2014. Championed by the BL Faculty/Staff, the “David Post Classroom Project” raised $25,000 to dedicate a classroom in his memory. What an amazing tribute to a treasured colleague!
The Mock Trial Team, who remained very near to Mr. Post’s heart, did a special presentation and played a tribute video, featuring numerous Mock Trial alumni who explained just how deeply their lives were influenced by their dedicated coach. As guests signed the classroom walls, and told their own stories of Mr. Post, his family, BL alumni, faculty, staff and friends celebrated and honored this special man the only way he would've wanted it ... Coffee House style! Thank you to everyone who was involved in this wonderful celebration!
More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bishoplynchhighschool/sets/72157651815903970/
David Post Tribute
by Michele Longoria, Student Communications Adviser
On July 2, 2014, the Bishop Lynch community was deeply saddened by the passing of Social Studies teacher, Mr. David Post after an 18 month battle with cancer.
Mr. Post was a master teacher, colleague, mentor and friend who, for 20 years, served BL and hundreds of our students teaching Government, United States History, Men's Golf and, his real passion, Mock Trial.
Mr. Post began the Mock Trial program 15 years ago. In their first year of competition, the team came out of nowhere to make it to the finals of regional competition, an almost unheard of feat. Since then, the Mock Trial team has advanced to State four times and regional finals nine times. Another notable event, in 2007, the team came in second in the prestigious Empire City Tournament in New York City in a field of 26 of the top teams in the nation.
That same year, the Mock Trial team competed in Harvard Law School's Seminar and tournament. Only the top programs in the nation were invited. The team won all three trials in its field, impressing judges from some of the best collegiate mock trial programs in the nation.
Mr. Post's name and impact in the Mock Trial world will forever live on. On October 24, 2014, Empire Mock Trial, a nonprofit organization which promotes legal education – posthumously awarded Mr. Post the William Hennessy Outstanding Educator Award, an annual recognition given to one exceptional educator.
Empire Mock Trial also renamed its Spirit of Empire award in Mr. Post’s honor. This annual recognition is bestowed upon the school which best exhibits the values of civility and professionalism during Empire’s New York program, qualities that Mr. Post held in the highest regard. Mr. Post, and the BL Mock Trial team, were charter members of the Empire Mock Trial organization and competitions. The BL Mock Trial teams have competed in this tournament since its inception.
“The David Post Spirit of Empire award will forever honor Mr. Post’s legacy and impact,” said Empire President Justin Matarrese. “He will always be with us.”
Among his many roles, Post served as chair of the Social Studies Department from 1996-2001. David founded and coordinated the Teacher Mentoring Program. He served as the Men's Golf head coach and he served as the moderator of the Bi-Partisan Club.
The "Postman," one of his loving monikers, was a self-proclaimed "ardent advocate of the value of copious divergent cultural awareness." Therefore, he organized an annual spring break trip to a foreign land. He was extremely well traveled, having been to Europe more than 25 times, he traveled to Asia and all over the Northern Hemisphere and Caribbean - from the Cayman Islands to Alaska with his students and family.
Mr. Post had an incredible demand of his classroom. Students were challenged and pushed to the farthest limits of their intelligence, learning that their voice was important and would make a difference as they would venture off to their higher education.
Mr. Post was a loving family man, truly devoted to his wife Susan and daughters Sarah '04 and Hannah '14. According to his personal biography, he had "a voracious appetite for reading, enjoying anything from Stephen King to Gore Vidal to Plato." He was a lover of both high and popular culture so you would have found him "at a Vivaldi concerto at the Myerson, a U2 concert at American Airlines Arena or a modernist Avant Garde Strindberg play in Deep Ellum."
If you were to ask, student after student would tell you that their time with Mr. Post changed their lives. When BL graduates return to visit their alma mater, Mr. Post's room was undoubtedly one of the first and most visited by all alumni he taught.
American historian Henry Brooks Adams once said, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."
This is extremely true of Mr. Post. It is impossible to measure the lives he affected. Thank you, Mr. Post. You will live on forever in students, colleagues, friends and family.