Stanley C. Chojnacki, teacher, WWII vet

Stanley C. Chojnacki compiled a 21-6 record as a pitcher for the baseball team at what is now Villanova University in the late 1940s.

In 1993, that college career earned him induction into the Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame.

But it was one strikeout against one first baseman, in a 5-1 victory at Yale University on June 8, 1946, that made his career memorable in later years.

The first baseman was future President George H.W. Bush, Mr. Chojnacki said in autobiographical notes.

Mr. Chojnacki, 91, of Pennsauken, a former American government teacher at Camden and Pennsauken High Schools, died Wednesday, Nov. 5, at home.

Born in Camden, Mr. Chojnacki graduated in 1942 from Camden High School, where he played on the baseball and basketball teams and "excelled in both," he said in his notes.

Though he was accepted on a sports scholarship at Duke University - on the recommendation of Philadelphia A's manager Connie Mack - he was drafted and became an Army infantryman, and landed on Utah Beach on Day Two of the Normandy Invasion.

Serving in the liberation of France and the Battle of the Bulge, he said, he was part of an automatic weapons team and at times worked on a "truck-based, quad-mounted .50-caliber, machine-gun system."

Mr. Chojnacki earned a bachelor's degree in education at Villanova in 1950 and taught American government at Burrough Junior High School in Camden from 1950 to 1953.

He taught the same subject at Camden High from 1953 to 1970 and at Pennsauken High from 1970 until his retirement in 1986.

Pennsauken High nominated him for New Jersey Teacher of the Year, and in 1977, he earned the Freedoms Foundation Medal, his notes report.

John Harbison, longtime social studies department chairman at Pennsauken High, recalled Mr. Chojnacki as a "soft-spoken, caring Christian gentleman."

"He had great empathy for the kids; an outstanding teacher," Harbison said.

During all of Mr. Chojnacki's career at Pennsauken, he said, Harbison as department chairman "never heard a complaint from student or parent."

While at Pennsauken High, Mr. Chojnacki earned a master's in education at Rutgers-Camden, his wife, Gertrude, said.

While at Camden High, he was summer camp director for the Cerebral Palsy School in Pennsauken. During summers in the 1970s and '80s, he managed the Woodbine Swim Club in Pennsauken.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by sons Steven, Kenneth, and David; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

Services were held Tuesday, Nov. 11.

Donations may be sent to St. Peter Church, 43 W. Maple Ave., Merchantville, N.J. 08109.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.schetterfh.com.

610-313-8134 @WNaedele