School mourns popular teacher
Doll remembered as easy-going, dedicated to 4th-, 5th-graders
Posted: Oct. 29, 2006
Over the course of 34 years, Tom Doll taught the fourth- and fifth-grade students
at St. Mary's Catholic School in Hales Corners with a smile and a gentle hand. To
honor him, parents and students came togetherat the school Saturday morning
for a prayer
service and to create a "memory poster" for the popular teacher who filled his
room with massive plants, a 40-gallon fish tank and easy laughter.
Doll died on Friday after having a heart attack. He was 55.
"The other teachers admired him," said Jeanne Siegenthaler, the school principal.
"Whenever he entered the room, he brought a smile to everyone's face."
At the prayer service, one student recalled a practical joke Doll had played,
Siegenthaler said.
"The student went to the front of the room to hand in a paper and Mr. Doll was
standing behind one of his huge plants where he couldn't be seen," Siegenthaler said. "As the student was walking by, Mr.
Doll reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder."
Service at 9 a.m. today
Counselors will be on hand today to help the grieving community. There will be
a service at 9 a.m. for students, parents and alumni. Doll had been at the same school for so many years that he was teaching
the children of some of his early students.
Doll was the product of a Catholic education. He attended St. Sebastian elementary
school in Milwaukee, St. Francis de Sales Seminary Prep High School and Dominican College. St.
Mary's was his first and only teaching job, said his wife, Melody, who teaches at St. Adalbert's School.
He loved teaching children to do word play, Melody Doll said, asking his students
questions like "Why do we drive in a parkway and park in a driveway?" He also never took himself too seriously, she noted.
"He went bald prematurely," she said. "So he got a 'bald man's hairbrush' - one
without bristles."
Check-up goes fine
Melody Doll said her husband had gone in for a medical checkup about 10 days ago
and was pronounced well except for a cold.
Friday night, the Dolls had gone out to dinner to celebrate their oldest son's
birthday. Tom Doll had the heart attack as the family was returning home.
On the school's Web page, Doll noted that academic progress is not always the
best gauge of how a teacher is doing. Rather, it is in "the openness, trust and respect developed with your class," he wrote.
Siegenthaler said one of the most moving comments she had heard about Doll was
from a mother who said she spoke with him hours before his death. She told him that her daughter had described him as the
best teacher she had ever had, a comment that brought a tear to Doll's eye, Siegenthaler said.
In addition to his wife, Doll is survived by two sons, Christopher and Nicholas,
and his mother, Edith Doll.
Services will be Wednesday at St. Rafael the Archangel at S. 33rd and W. Becher
streets. Visitation will be from 2 until 4 p.m., followed by a funeral Mass.
Tom Doll 