Craig Podolski was middle school English teacher and coach in Buffalo Grove who developed an annual service day at his school that had hundreds of youngsters volunteering in the community.
“As both a teacher and a coach, he inspired, encouraged and supported his students in the classroom and on the court while also staying connected with them even after they had moved on to high school and college,” said Jessica McIntyre, superintendent in Aptakisic-Tripp School Dist. 102.
Podolski, 45, died of a cardiac event March 2 at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, said his wife of 12 years, Susan. He was a Lake Zurich resident.
Craig Arthur Podolski was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, outside Detroit, and as a boy moved to north suburban Green Oaks. After graduating from Libertyville High School, he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 2001, majoring in sports management and picking up a minor in kinesiology. He got a master’s degree in teaching from National Louis University in 2009.
For several years after college Podolski was assistant video director for the Chicago Bears, taping games for analytical study and overseeing the motivational tapes players would watch before games.
In 2007, he began teaching at Lake Zurich Middle School North, moving three years later to teach eighth grade English at Aptakisic Junior High in Buffalo Grove. Podolski quickly developed a rapport with students, who called him “Mr. Podo.”
“He had an uncanny ability to connect with students,” his wife said. “Without even intending to, he would become those kids’ safe space and in the outpouring and the hundreds of letters I’ve received from current and past students going back 10 years, the kids have said, ‘He was my safe place. He was my trusted adult. He made coming to school fun. I hated school but he changed that for me.’”
Jason Fisk, a language arts teacher at Aptakisic Junior High, recalled Podolski’s sense of humor and his penchant for wearing flip-flops even during the winter, along with funny graphic T-shirts.
“He was incredibly intelligent and probably could have done anything, vocationally, that he set his mind to, (but) he chose to be a teacher and help shape and change our world for the better,” Fisk said. “His impact was always reflected in the large number of students who came back to school to visit him, and others who maintained contact with him into their adulthood.”
Fisk said developing the school’s service day was Podolski’s “passion project.”
“He was deeply dedicated to serving his school and community,” said McIntyre, who was the principal of Podolski’s school before becoming the district’s superintendent. She added that the concept of the service day demonstrated Podolski’s “unwavering commitment to making a difference.”
In addition to teaching, Podolski coached girls volleyball, girls basketball and boys basketball.
Fitting for an English teacher, Podolski was an avid reader. In 1998, Podolski, then 18, told the Daily Herald newspaper that he liked reading works by authors Stephen King and Dean Koontz, and that their books scared him far more than any movie or TV show because their books require the reader’s imagination. Susan Podolski noted that with the advent of the audiobook, her husband would read and listen to more than 500 books a year.
In addition to his wife, Podolski is survived by a daughter, Aubrey; a son, Wyatt; his parents, Richard and Judith; a brother, Steve; and two sisters, Jennifer Steele and Sarah Trantham.
A service was held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
