The students had completed the work their teacher had left for them. Now, with a few minutes to spare before the bell would ring to signal the end of the period, substitute teacher Francis Tuoti–whom the students call Mr. T–asked the North Salem Middle School kids a question: How do you define time?
The students reflexively started to answer and then quickly found themselves stumbling over their words. A word they were so familiar with was proving really hard to explain.
It’s easy to take time for granted when you’re young and believe it to be an endless resource to be consumed at your leisure. It’s far more precious when you’re 96 years old, as Tuoti is.
Tuoti told them that time is not like water. “You can’t put time in a bottle. You can’t save it. Once you use it up, it’s gone,” Tuoti said. “If you don’t use it when you have it, if you waste it, it’s gone forever.”
Tuoti grew up during the Great Depression and served in the Navy during World War II. He lives alone in the North Salem home his family built in 1926 as a summer retreat from their primary residence in New Rochelle. In his 10th decade of life, he’s old enough to understand how precious time is. And Tuoti chooses to spend much of his time with people more than 80 years younger than him.
“I enjoy teaching because I like to work with the young people,” Tuoti said. “I learn from them as much as they learn from me. It has a tendency to keep an old person more vibrant and alive.”
Tuoti said that working with kids helps him stay in touch with what’s happening in the world. Being around teenagers, as Tuoti is several days a week at North Salem Middle/High School, covering science, Spanish, social studies and other classes, Tuoti absorbs the latest slang and pop culture references. “If there’s somebody on TV, I’ll say to myself I’ve heard of that person before; somebody like Pink,” he said.
The benefits of this arrangement are not one way. Tuoti uses the time he spends with teens to impart wisdom he’s gained from his near century on earth. “I’ll tell them that if they finish all their work and we have time, I’ll tell them a story. I try to give them little lessons.”
Take, for example, the story he tells about the HIndenburg disaster. The massive airship caught fire over Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937. But before that, it had sailed over Washington School in New Rochelle, where Tuoti, then 10, was a 5th grader. “They had us out on the playground and overhead at a certain time, there was this huge, huge balloon going past. I told [the students] it was amazing. It was down so low that people could wave to you and you could see them waving through the windows.”
In telling the story, Tuoti said he got the students “real interested” and “worked up a little bit.” He went on to explain how probably a half hour later as the airship was preparing to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst it caught fire and exploded, killing 36 people. “It was horrible,” Tuoti said. He wanted the students to know this piece of history, not just from a textbook or a YouTube clip. “You can tell your parents that you not only heard the story, but from someone who actually saw the Hindenburg.”
Juliette Varga, an 8th grader at North Salem Middle School, recalled hearing Tuoti’s Hindenburg story when he subbed for her 7th grade science class last year. It was the first time she had learned about the disaster. “He’s got great stories that are firsthand that I wouldn’t have known otherwise,” Varga said.
Sometimes Tuoti’s stories are less about events and more about imparting some small dose of wisdom or way of approaching the world. He encourages students to take chances, to be respectful of their peers, not be afraid to fail. “Failure is something that you have to do once in a while to learn. Most famous scientists and people have had failures,” he said.
For Nicholas Gamiello, a 6th grader at North Salem Middle School, Tuoti stands out as a substitute not just for his age, but for how he shows up in the classroom. “The learning part is the same but what he does after we do the work is different,” Gamiello said. “Most substitutes let us play a game or something, but he would tell a story.”
School, of course, has changed since Tuoti was a student. “Back then, if you did something wrong the principal might give you a whack. That was acceptable back then,” Tuoti said. And the role of a substitute teacher has changed, too, even since Tuoti, a retired aircraft and automobile engineer, began teaching in his 80’s. “Most [teachers] will leave you a note that says to check on Google Classroom,” he said, referring to the online teaching platform that took off during the pandemic. “It’s the sub’s job not to be an expert in that subject but to see that the students conduct themselves properly and that they do their assignment. You gotta make sure they get the assignment done. That’s important.”
Tuoti noted that his experience as a student was one in which the teacher talked and the students were expected only to listen. “Now they do let the kids work together and I see a big benefit in that. The kids can benefit from each other’s knowledge.”
Tuoti takes care to keep himself well enough to keep up with the energy of teenagers. He does his own laundry and takes care of his home. A few times a week, he works out with a trainer at Anytime Fitness in Somers. “When you get a lot of years on your back there are usually some things you have to try to get shaped up again. It’s not pain-free, getting old,” he said with a mixture of a grin and a grimace.
Tuoti cooks dinner for himself each night. “Usually Italian,” he said, offering a look at the cookbook he wrote based on the many recipes he’s perfected over the years. On Fridays, his friend Garrett often joins him for dinner. “We might have a martini together,” he said. He watches very little TV, is generally in bed by 9, and makes his bed each morning.
Tuoti reflected on his life from a stool in his warm and well-kept North Salem kitchen, which has views down to the Titicus Reservoir. Occasionally his cell phone dings and Tuoti apologizes for the interruption, pulling the phone from a pocket inside his fleece jacket. He explains he wants to check whether it’s just a friend he can respond to later or a message related to teaching that he needs to address. He takes seriously his responsibility to his work.
“A lot of people get to be my age and older but are impeded by the need for anything up to and including around-the-clock nursing,” he said. “So far, I’ve escaped that. How long? I don’t know. None of us know. You think about what’s going to happen to you.”
When asked how he thinks about his legacy, Tuoti seemed uncomfortable with the weight of the word. “You gotta give me a minute to think, he said, his blue eyes squinting as he looked out the window and toward the reservoir. After a few moments of thought, he said, “I would just like to be remembered as a person who did things in his life to protect the people of this country. I like to think that I contributed in a good part to the advancement of scientific knowledge. I’d like people to also remember me as a good friend and a good contributor to the advancement of a good, stabilized humanity.”
Later that night, after considering the question further, Tuoti sent a text. “I would like the students to remember me as knowledgeable, kind and helpful. Always there when needed. As coined by the students themselves, ‘the legend of Mr. T, super sub’ will live on!”
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