"A Tutor's Tutor Gives and Gives But Never Takes" by Michael Winerip

"'You cannot do [anything] for this man,' Arlene Englander, a teacher at Public School 6, was saying.... She meant Albert Tonner, who is 75 years old and has been a volunteer tutor at the school for six years....

"He's now seeing children five days a week, up to five hours a day. He brings them books, writes out multiplication tables for them to study. He gave all the special education students pens....

"If the retired executive misses a day for sickness, he wants to make up the time.... [Once when he was home] the teachers visited him. 'He was crying,' said Mrs. Markowitz. 'He said, "I'm coming back!" We said he'll never be back. He's back! Two years now. Taking more kids than ever. I have never known a person like Mr. Tonner. Most people ... They give, they take. This man, he won't take.'

"Mrs. Englander has a third grader whose father was killed. For a long time, he cried every day. 'Since the boy's been working with Albert, he's stopped.' ...

"The tutoring itself is nothing magic, a lot of repetition and building a child's confidence. He was doing multiplication with a boy named Paul.... He'd bought the boy 'Casey at the Bat,' which they read....

"In summer he takes students to the beach....

"At the end, he gives a pep talk, telling them they can be doctors or scientists. They get the same talk every day. 'You have to adhere to your studies,' he told a boy named Kerry as the bell rang....

"Emerson, the Salvadoran boy, had been in school two months, when the district decided he could not continue because he did not have a legal local residence. 'Mr. Tonner happened to be in the office and saw the boy crying,' said Rosemarie Luttinger, a teacher. Mr. Tonner arranged to tutor the boy at the public library. In June, Mr. Tonner set up a year-end party for Emerson at school. 'I wrote up a speech for him in English to say to the kids,' Mr. Tonner recalled. Then Emerson sang 'It Ain't Going to Rain No More.'

"This is why when Mrs. Greenberger saw Mr. Tonner at the end of the day Tuesday she said, 'He's one in a million.'"

Editors' comment: It isn't always easy to describe the greatness of one heroic deed let alone the heroism of day-by-day un-selfed helpfulness.

At some point, watching Mr. Tonner help yet another child master the multiplication tables, the teachers around him realized they were in the presence of greatness—"one in a million." It wasn't so much what this volunteer tutor did on any particular day; it was the way his life shows how life is meant to be.

Reading of Mr. Tonner, we're reminded once again of where purpose and fulfillment are found: in serving one's fellowman. We don't know of his religious convictions, but we can't help remembering the Old Testament teaching that man is made in the image of God, of "the helper of the fatherless," to borrow a phrase from Psalms.

Copyright © 1990 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.