NEW PORT RICHEY — Over his 30 years at the New Port Richey campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College, Michael Sadusky developed the kind of reputation many professors covet.
Related News/Archive
-
Legal community rocked by FSU law professor's killing
-
A passionate musician leads Richey Community Orchestra
-
Retired college professor took Habitat teams to 16 countries
Mr. Sadusky, who spent 25 of those years as chairman of the psychology department at what is now Pasco-Hernando State College, was the kind of teacher around whom core groups of students planned their schedules. They argued with him and changed their majors to psychology because of him. They attended the interdisciplinary events he cofounded, including Peace Week, Art and Culture Week and a "Love Symposium" held on Valentine's Day.
At times, they accepted rides to doctors' appointments from him, allowed him to pick up their kids from school or pay their dues to the college's honor society — needs he discovered only because he asked a lot of questions.
Mr. Sadusky, who instilled a love of learning in hundreds, perhaps thousands of students, died Nov. 24 of a respiratory illness. He was 69.
In an era when universities go increasingly digital, he allowed no laptops or recording devices in his classroom.
“If it had an electrical power source, it was his enemy," said Christina Partin, a former student who teaches sociology at the University of South Florida. "He thought PowerPoint was evil and it was the antithesis of humanity."
Bonnie Clark, the college's vice president of instruction, called Mr. Sadusky "old school."
"It's the old dog, new tricks thing," she said. "Michael was, 'Let me go and teach my class' kind of stuff. That's where his love was. In the class, with his students."
His office was a fire hazard, stacked with papers and old magazines and books he had read 30 years ago that still might come in handy. He collected Beanie Babies, cigar boxes, calendars and "anything he thought would be valuable one day," said Megan Sadusky, his daughter.
Mr. Sadusky assembled grand public events in the same all-consuming, aggregating way. Starting in 2007 (with English professor Karen Davis, who conceived it), Mr. Sadusky packed an annual Peace Week affair with a range of speakers on technology and war, Holocaust survivors and environmental activists. Musicians played, potters spun clay and Buddhist monks shaped geometric-patterned mandalas out of sand.
He debated colleagues forcefully, either as part of a planned event or spontaneously in the hallway. And while he might have raised some people's blood pressure, Mr. Sadusky did not make enemies.
"He was a master debater," said Stanley Giannet, the provost of the college's Wesley Chapel campus and a longtime interlocutor. "Yet he respected the other person's personhood. He wasn't angry. He was passionate."
Michael J. Sadusky was born in Staples, Minn., in 1945, the son of a janitor and a telephone operator. Originally headed for the priesthood, he earned two master's degrees, in theology at St. John's University and in counseling at the University of South Florida. He got a job as a director of religious education at a Catholic church in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1969, the same year he married Charleen Hall. He then took a series of similar jobs in several cities, including as director of religious education from 1980 to 1982 at Clearwater's St. Cecelia Catholic Church.
He taught classes as an adjunct professor at Hernando-Pasco Community College and also worked as a counselor until 1987, when, according to his curriculum vitae, he became a full professor and department chair.
He was by turns tempestuous and compassionate. Partin, who co-taught some classes with Mr. Sadusky, said he could abort class if one student whispered during a lecture.
"He would say, 'You know what? Everybody go home,' " Partin said. "Dismissed everybody."
Mr. Sadusky retired in 2012 but was continuing to teach classes as an adjunct. After undergoing heart bypass surgery in May, he slipped into a coma. He emerged six weeks later. After months of rehabilitation, Mr. Sadusky entered Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in November for an emergency tracheostomy. He died in the hospital four days later.
His death shocked colleagues and students who had expected his return after Thanksgiving.
"He had the persona of a curmudgeonly professor when he was attempting to make a point," said Giannet, who delivered his eulogy. "But what mattered was that beneath that veneer was a soft, gentle, loving human being, was something beautiful."
Contact Andrew Meacham at ameacham@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2248. Follow @torch437.