Bible teacher and pianist retires at 91
At Friday's kindergarten Thanksgiving program at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, teacher Mike Sherman took his seat at the piano, just as he has done for the last 40 years.
He played their final song, "He Has Made Me Glad," in an upbeat march tempo, pausing at just the right moments to allow the children to clap. When the program ended, the young pilgrims and Indians exited as, Sherman played, "God Bless America."
The anthem turned out to be Sherman's swan song.
This Thanksgiving program was his last. He retired from the school Friday, at the age of 91, due to health reasons.
"This is the first year I cut back - to three days a week. They thought if I cut back, I'd last longer," Sherman says with a laugh.
Since joining the school in 1969, Sherman has taught the Bible to elementary age students, while filling in on the piano whenever he was needed.
"He has been the central core of young children's Bible classes here for 40 years," said Thad Bennett, assistant headmaster. "He was my Bible teacher, and he played the piano at programs when I was this age. He's an institution here."
Teaching was a second career for Sherman, after he had played piano in a Navy band during World War II alongside USO performers, and later worked as a pianist at Chicago area supper clubs.
But his life took on new meaning, he says, when he and his wife, Sherry, met the Rev. Paul Lindstrom, who was in the process of trying to start his new church in the suburbs.
Legend has it that Sherman was the one who suggested the name: the Church of Christian Liberty.
Right from the start, the nondenominational congregation embraced a worldwide missionary vision, based on members applying Biblical scripture teachings to aspects of their everyday lives, and singing hymns of praise.
That's where Sherman came in. He played hymns for the church and carried that over to the school and its youngest students.
On Friday, he watched as they sang all the verses to six hymns, and recited 10 Bible passages, most of which he had taught them.
"It's been great therapy for me all of these years," Sherman says. "I always had a feeling that I was helping them - that if I taught them what the words meant, they'd remember them."