By Alexandra Salerno
Advisory Editor
Mathematics 107 professor Harold Anglovich admits his subject can sometimes be mundane for students.
“It’s boring material as far as I’m concerned,” said Anglovich, who has taught at St. Bonaventure for three years. “I break things up a little bit. I like to make students smile, make them laugh and make them think a little bit.”
There’s nothing boring, however, about Anglovich himself.
Anglovich worked as an engineer after receiving an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering, but his career path was short-lived.
Doctors diagnosed Anglovich with Lyme Disease, causing the state to revoke his engineering license and send him back to school to become a teacher. But because of the stress the disease caused his body, the state concluded Anglovich wasn’t capable of teaching.
Anglovich wouldn’t quit, however. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and became a teacher.
“I refuse to just sit down and stay down,” he said. “I keep going, and even though sometimes I am in severe pain, I’ll fight it. I’ve proven them wrong with all of it because of what I do and everything else.”
Anglovich’s ‘everything else’ is a lifelong commitment to volunteering. He has dedicated more than 60 years as a Boy Scouts of America Leader nationally and locally, more than 30 years as a 4-H leader and more than 15 years as a volunteer with the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services.
Because of his work with Emergency Disaster Services, Anglovich is on call 24/7. His first major national call was on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was there within 12 hours,” said Anglovich. “I helped feed the first responders and make sure they had a place to stay.”
Since then, Anglovich has also responded to disasters in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Missouri. He also has responded to more local emergencies.
Anglovich underwent extensive training and background checks from FEMA, Salvation Army and Homeland Security to work with Emergency Disaster Services. He now oversees warehousing at disaster sites.
For Anglovich, volunteering is about a promise he made.
“I promised a long time ago that whatever I received I was going to give back ten fold, and that is what I’m doing.”
This includes Anglovich’s work with the Boy Scouts of America and the 4-H club, which he has been involved with since adolescence.
“As a youth, these organizations spent a lot of time with me when I was a Scout and member of 4-H,” he said. “I have the time, abilities and pretty much the finances to be able to (volunteer). People spent a lot of time and energy on me, and I’m willing to do the same and give back.”
Anglovich was retired from his various teaching jobs before applying to be a professor at Bonaventure.
“I look at the youth as a resource that we have, and you have to protect them and teach them,” he said. “I like it here. I get good interaction with the students. In most of my classes, I’ve had traditional and non-traditional students, so it makes the class more versatile to me.”
For years, Anglovich has spent December to April living in Quartzsite, Ariz.: his reason for only teaching Bonaventure students during the fall semester.
While in Arizona, Anglovich manufactures gemstone jewelry, silver and gold castings and beading for a jewelry business founded by Anglovich’s late wife, a Native American who had done bead work for most of her life.
Anglovich will carry on his wife’s legacy when he travels down to Arizona again this December.
“That’s what she wanted,” he said.
He also said his wife was proud of his teaching, and he’ll be back to Bonaventure next fall to teach his students again.
“I enjoy it,” he said. “It keeps me young.”
