ELLENBURG — Henry McGovern never knew how many lives he touched until he was fighting for his own.

The 76-year-old art teacher from Northern Adirondack Central Elementary School was diagnosed with lymphoma last school year. He was told he had a 33-percent chance of beating the cancer.

But as his recent PET scan pointed to remission, he headed back into the classroom to start his 50th year as an educator.

"I had a lot of people praying for me," McGovern said. "You find out how many people are in your corner."

UPBEAT ATTITUDE
McGovern said that for him, battling cancer wasn't all bad.

"The people at the CVPH Cancer Center are so incredibly dedicated. I can't say having cancer was bad for me; it was good for me.

"I never said, 'Why me?' I'm 76 years old."

But after finding out he's in remission, he thinks about all the people who aren't.

"Now I'm saying, 'Why me?'"

'RENAISSANCE GUY'
The seasoned teacher, who grew up in a Boston suburb, said nearly everyone he met at the hospital had been taught by him.

"I began to realize if I had spent my life selling left-handed widgets and had become the king of left-handed widgets I never would have touched all these lives."

His colleagues agree — especially Jerry Seguin, who has been teaching art at NACS for 34 years. McGovern was Seguin's sixth-grade art teacher in 1965 and his inspiration to become an art educator.

He recalled McGovern's great stories and slides from his trips out West.

"He's a real Renaissance kind of guy," Seguin continued, recalling the gadgets McGovern had created to move slides to music.

"Henry always looked at how to get the most out of everything."

He told how McGovern once bought a sailboat, only to sell it and build a boat of his own out of plywood.

"He is an incredible guy," Seguin said. "He brought wonder into the art room."

INSPIRING KIDS
And that's something McGovern still does today.

Katelin Guerin, a 9-year-old fourth-grader, said her favorite part of art class is drawing.

"(Mr. McGovern) taught me how to draw. And that's where I get my art skills from.

"Sometimes he shows us pictures on his computer, and he tells us neat stories," she continued. "He showed us the picture of the Mona Lisa, and it's a really nice picture. He told us about the Mona Lisa being stolen by thieves."

Fellow fourth-grader, Lydie Pivetta, 9, especially likes when McGovern teaches painting, which happens to be his area of expertise.

"He's a really nice art teacher who teaches us really cool things about art."

SENSE OF HUMOR
McGovern said it was his high-school art teacher who pushed him to go to the Massachusetts College of Art.

"I didn't want to be a starving artist," said McGovern, who once worked as a cartoonist for the Berlin Observer while stationed in Germany in the Army.

"Some people have a knack for things — thank God, I have one for teaching."

His favorite part of teaching?

"Break time," he joked at first.

"I have different ages and different things we do with different ages."

Right now his fourth-graders are doing self-portraits. His second-graders are working with calligraphic lines and using glue for the first time.

"I'm going to try to keep them from gluing themselves to their chairs," he said laughing.

"We're fighting commercialization (in the classroom)," McGovern said. "I want to have them realize the power of their imagination."

PASSION FOR WORK
Many of his colleagues agree that he is able to do just that.

Christine Brudvig, an 20-year elementary counselor at NACS, still has a shelf at home filled with sculptures her 17-year-old daughter made in McGovern's classes.

"The kids love him," Brudvig said. "I would say that Henry is a quiet man with a clever sense of humor. He's a genuinely sweet, nice man."

McGovern was always known for having long, unkempt hair.

"The first faculty meeting he showed up to after losing his hair to (chemotherapy), he exclaimed that he was in an Uncle Fester competition," Brudvig said. "He said he always wanted to look like someone famous. He can take a very grim situation and make light of it."

Superintendent Laura Marlow calls his passion and dedication to his students inspirational.

"I've never known anyone to be in the teaching profession for this long."

For now, McGovern said, he's taking things one year at a time.

"I think so many people retire and die. Well, they go to Disney World, and then they die," he joked.

Outside of the classroom McGovern spends time with his wife, Cindy, and their "four-legged kids." He also works on watercolor paintings of Point au Roche.

"Right now, I'm happy as a clam. I always wondered, why are clams happy? Why are clams the standard of happiness? I don't know ... but I'm happy as one."

E-mail Michelle Besaw at: mbesaw@pressrepublican.com