Inspirational teacher

It was a night like any other when Justino Navarro ended his evening class several years ago. The North Lake College Spanish instructor packed up his belongings and walked up the stairs to the DART bus stop for his long journey home.

Few people knew that Navarro had to take three buses every day to reach NLC for his classes. It was during one of those bus transfers that the dedicated teacher was beaten and robbed.

“Although he was physically injured, he wasn’t angry,” said Leslie Reyes-Chinchilla, a NLC instructor and close friend. He added that this attitude was typical coming from someone who just wanted to get back to work.

When Navarro’s foreign language students heard that his briefcase had been stolen, they collected money to buy a new one. Even after this incident, his positive attitude didn’t change.

His optimism and love for life are what many are missing these days in the halls of NLC. The remarkable professor, 84, passed away last month following a stroke he suffered on New Year’s Eve.

“He loved teaching and he was very loyal to North Lake,” Dr. Cathy Briggs, a Foreign Language instructor, said. She added that Navarro’s joy for instruction also applied to his life: He was a very positive person who never complained and always saw the best in everyone.

Navarro started working at NLC 18 years ago as a Spanish instructor. Since the moment he started he showed true passion for his profession, teaching two or three courses every semester and never missing a class.

His commitment was such that he showed up to work even when his wife was gravely ill at the hospital. “He said that it was her wish for him to go on and teach,” said Briggs. “Justino said it was his duty toward his students to show up.”

During his time as a NLC instructor, he always showed appreciation for his students. “I love seeing students’ faces when they learn something new. It makes me really happy,” said Navarro in an interview with the News-Register last semester. If students were disrespectful, he never held it against them. Quite the contrary, he said that he thought the reason why students acted up sometimes was because they were frustrated with the class.

Navarro also said he understood that Spanish classes could be quite difficult. “But all I have to do is make my class better and easier and hopefully students will appreciate it,” he said.

He always hoped for his students to be successful, and he left a message in one of his poems.

 Whatever future undertakings you will pursue, whatever choices you will make in continuing your university studies, wherever your work activities will eventually take place, I am quite confident you will be blessed with resounding successes! You deserve them!

Navarro, a Philippines native, is survived by 3 sons, daughter, 4 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren, and a family of friends and colleagues at North Lake College.