On the evening of April 21st, 2016, Signor Pelligrini announced big news to his Italian students. After 40 great years at Padua, he has decided to retire. Signor said that he is finally deciding to retire, saying, “There were several factors involved, the first one being my wife. She has been retired for three years and every year we have the same discussion. We have things that we want to do and every year I have told her, “Why don’t I teach an additional year?” This has been going on for a few years now and it finally came to the point where I had to finalize the decision. The one factor that really tipped it and convinced me to retire this year was with the birth of my grandsons, Jeremy in the summer and Nikko just before Christmas. Also, I’ve been here for 40 years and when I say ‘4-0’ that seems like a good number to retire on and I feel as if, humbly speaking I think I am still an effective teacher and I would like to go out on the top of my game.”

    Signor has plenty of things he would like to get into after he retires. He would like to travel, saying, “I love cruising. I’ll probably be cruising the Mediterranean sometime in the near future”. He plans on spending a lot of time with his grandsons and family, especially with his son Mark who lives down in Florida. Signor wants to further pursue his paintings, building furniture, continuing his regular exercise, and follow a secret dream of his, saying, “One of these days I am going to commit to writing about a lot of things that were part of my teaching career and reflect but I’d also like to maybe write a language text”.

    When asked how he felt about his retirement, Signor said, “I feel benevolent and surreal. Surreal because teaching has been my whole life and I try to envision what it is going to be like to not have my life dictated by an academic calendar. My whole life has been run by an academic calendar. Also, I am very benevolent about leaving. I have a lot of reservations and the biggest one is that I will miss immensely being in the classroom and interacting with the students, teaching, you know doing what is so important to me, so natural, and the passion I have to convey this love of mine for the Italian language and the culture.” Signor will not only miss his students, his students will miss him. Kaitlyn Cassidy, a sophomore says, “I’ve only had Signor as a teacher for two years, but these two years will definitely impact the rest of my life. I will really miss him.”  

    Signor says, “I hope that I was a good teacher, that I challenged my students to achieve excellence and maximize their talents. I hope that along the way I inspired them to give it their best and to be the very best students that they could. I hope that I connected with my students in a very human way. I would like to think or hope that somewhere down the line that I made connections that are meaningful to the students and maybe we would even stay connected as the years go on.” He continues to say that, “Something unique to Padua is that there are not many male teachers. I hope that I gave the girls of Padua a role model they could look up to, that was positive, that brought out good manly qualities. And lastly, I hope that I conveyed to the students my passion, my absolute passion for teaching, teaching in general and in particular my love for the Italian language and the culture. I hope that this passion of mine motivated some to pick up the baton and go with it, hopefully someday my students will make this sort of a lifetime interest to pursue their love of the Italian language and culture and maybe they will travel and get to experience all the things we talk about in the classroom.”

    Signor was inspired by his 3rd through 5th grade teacher in Italy. He was “old school” and Signor was scared of him. When he found out that he would have him as a teacher, he cried. After having him, Signor realized that he was great, he was “fair, he challenged us, he inspired us, and put his heart and soul into his teaching” and he even cried when Signor’s class left him! Signor hopes that he “emulates this man and his teachings”. Father Mario also inspired Signor and was very “instrumental in the Italian program at Padua” and had a very special bond with Signor, he traveled with him, was his mentor and was “a very great person to know”.

    Signor hasn’t just taught Italian in his 40 years here at Padua, he has taught many people life lessons. Signor may come off as a teacher who is not one to bends the rules, but when you get to know him, he is one of the greatest teachers in Padua. Signor will be dearly missed not only by his Italian students, but by the Padua community.