Students returned to Hampton Elementary School this year to meet many new faces and new expectations, yet none as challenging as news of the sudden and tragic death of former teacher, Jim Shifrin, who passed away on September 30.

Tributes poured in for Mr. Shifrin, who served as the school’s special education teacher for several years, as current and former staff and families recalled his “kindness, compassion, and gentleness”. Long-time principal Marsha Willhoit Jendrewski wrote, “His warmth, patience, and intelligence were appreciated by children, parents, and staff.” Mr. Shifrin is remembered among all who knew him for “his deep sense of giving to his students as a special education teacher, a musician who shared his gift of voice and guitar, and friend who always listened, laughed, and cared for others.”

With his own life marked with incomprehensible losses, Mr. Shifirin served as a role model for students, teaching through example perseverance, gratitude and generosity. Predeceased by his daughter, Bailey Theresa, “Jim took grief and tragedy and turned it into an act of love and prayer. He built and dedicated a beautiful, welcoming, handicapped-accessible playground to include all children, and then, following a tragic bicycle accident that left him paralyzed, he formed the Bailey’s Garden Foundation to support children and families with disabilities.”

These charitable acts, and the example Mr. Shifrin set for us, will live on, along with the recollections children never forget of a beloved teacher. Our condolences to his wife, Mary-Grace, and their children, Cooper James and Nevaeh Maria Rose, and all the current and former staff and students at Hampton Elementary who knew and loved him.
Donations in Jim Shifrin’s honor may be made to Bailey’s Garden Foundation, 116 Bascom Road, Lebanon, CT, 06249, Windham Dialysis Unit, Windham, CT, or Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Hartford, CT.