Bernie Mac's Teacher Remembers His Student

David McGrath, Bernie Mac's freshman English teacher at Vocational High School, remembered the "tall, skinny kid" then known as Bernard Jeffrey McCullough that he taught 36-years ago in Thursday's Tribune:

I was a nervous, first-year teacher, intent on impressing the principal with my class-management skills, in hopes of gaining tenure.

Bernie Mac was the class cutup, a compulsive performer, to whom audience approval was more important than my lesson plans or his grades.

Not exactly my most-prized student.

But one memorable afternoon, his talent seemed to work in my favor. A heavy-set, officious assistant principal who liked to bully rookies paid a surprise visit to my 8th-period English class.

It was the last class any teacher would want observed.

Read the rest here.

A memorial service for the South Side-bred comedian Bernie Mac is scheduled for noon Saturday at House of Hope at 752 East 114th Street.