Werkowski to retire after 43 years in diocese

Lucas Glazewski, Staff Reporter

After 10 years teaching at Bishop Noll and 43 years teaching in total, freshman algebra teacher Mr. Mark Werkowski has announced his retirement to begin at the end of this school year.

Werkowski began his teaching career in 1974 at Holy Angels School in Gary, but in the summer of 1979, an opportunity presented itself for a position in administration at St. Thomas More School in Munster.

“After one year in administration, I found that I really missed being in the classroom and asked to remain at St. Tom’s, but as a teacher and not as an administrator,” Werkowski said.

He went back into the classroom and remained at St. Thomas More for 28 years.

Werkowski originally came to Noll in 2007 as a Prep Academy teacher and taught 7th and 8th grade math. He eventually transitioned to the high school when the Prep Academy was phased out.

But Werkowski’s link to Bishop Noll goes beyond his teaching days. Werkowski entered Bishop Noll as a student in 1965, which means his relationship with BNI has lasted a span of over 50 years. He says Bishop Noll has changed a lot of these past years due to the fact that the school used to have single gender classes.

“The boys were taught by the Christian Brothers as well as priests from the Diocese of Gary and lay teachers. The girls were taught by the Holy Cross Sisters as well as lay teachers. As I recall, the first co-ed class that I had was in my junior year when I took French 3. Finally, our senior year, all of the classes, except physical education, were co-ed classes,” he said.

Werkowski also attended Noll when it was at its peak size.

“When I graduated in 1969, we had about 550 students just in my graduating class,” he said. “That is more than the number in the entire student body here at Noll this year.”

This won’t be the last of Werkowski’s days at Noll, though. An avid sports fan, Werkowski attends nearly every home game the Warriors play and was the boys basketball scorekeeper this past year. He plans to continue his support for the Warriors.

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