Saint Francis University professor John Woznak teaches his last final Thursday afternoon, showing the movie “Wit” (2001) to his 17th Century Literature class. Mirror photo by Colette Costlow

Two years ago, Saint Francis University professor John Woznak presented a paper at a Westchester University English conference comparing 13th century Italian poet Dante’s “Inferno” and modern British singer Ed Sheeran’s song “Bad Habits.”

While it seemed Dante and Sheeran shared nothing in common, Woznak begged to differ, comparing the artists’ “sense of loss, separation and terror.”

For more than 40 years, Woznak has encouraged college students to make modern connections with classic literature, strengthening critical thinking skills.

At the beginning of December, however, Woznak taught his last class before retirement.

“Being with students gives me life every day,” he said Thursday during his last final, where he showed the movie “Wit” to his 17th Century Literature class.

“Sharing experiences with them, discovering new things with them — I’m going to miss that,” he said.

Product of Catholic education

Born May 8, 1950, Woznak grew up in Nanty Glo with his parents and younger sister, Diane Marie, who passed away at 3 years old from a bile duct malfunction disease known as biliary atresia.

Growing up, Woznak said he was a “follow the rules” type of child, as he spent most of his time in church.

While taking piano lessons at a young age, his family would visit the Prince Gallitzin Chapel in Loretto on “special days,” he said.

He started his educational journey at St. Mary Elementary School in Nanty Glo, where he remembers reading English poet Thomas Hood’s work titled “November.”

Woznak said he thought it was “so cool what you can do with language,” adding that “language

fascinated me.”

His fascination with words continued throughout high school at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School, especially when he went on a school trip to see “The Merchant of Venice” performed at Saint

Francis.

It was Woznak’s first time seeing a play written by Shakespeare, he said, and Shakespeare would later become his favorite subject to teach.

After his high school graduation, he said he only applied to one college: Saint Francis University.

Saint Francis was “always home to me,” he said.

As a product of Catholic education, he said, the first time he was inside a classroom without a Catholic crucifix was in graduate school at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Becoming that someone

After graduating with a doctorate in British literature, Woznak frequently filled in for the previous Saint Francis literature professor, William Furlong, who was dealing with ongoing medical issues at the time.

Woznak later inherited Furlong’s position after Furlong passed away.

Furlong was so “formative” in Woznak’s life, he said, as Furlong originally convinced Woznak to pursue graduate school.

At Saint Francis, Woznak taught literature courses such as Introduction to Literature, World Literature, 17th Century Literature, Romantic and Victorian Literature, and Shakespeare’s early and later plays.

When he was up for tenure, he decided to attend seminary school if rejected. However, the university awarded him a tenured position instead.

Teaching was “the best thing for me,” he said. “I think it’s what God wanted me to do.”

During his time at the university, Woznak wrote and published “Stewards of the Vision” in 1997, a book detailing Saint Francis’ history after its 150th anniversary, and received the faculty member of the year award three times, most recently in April earlier this year.

It’s a “nice tribute” to receive the honor a third time before his retirement, Saint Francis University President Father Malachi Van Tassell said.

Characterizing Woznak as “cheerful and vibrant,” Van Tassell said students and faculty are going to miss Woznak’s presence at school.

“As they say, he’s really at his best when he’s in the classroom,” Van Tassell said.

Real-world connections

When students conducted course evaluations, they said they enjoyed Woznak’s classes, but there were no “real-world applications,” he said.

“So, I thought music was the way to do it,” he said.

In class, students were asked to read a piece of literature, and then Woznak would subsequently play a modern song or movie and ask students to make a connection.

He would say to students, “Here’s a group or song you like, and it connects to dead white guys with a British accent.”

As a result, students started to see those “real-world connections,” thus writing stronger essays.

Woznak’s favorite question to ask was “what do you hear?” and students would “take the ball and run with it,” he said.

Fourth-year student Nate Scritchfield said he took the poem “Mac Flecknoe” by Thomas Dryden and compared it to the Nine Inch Nails song “Starf—s, Inc.” for an essay in Woznak’s course.

After writing that assignment, Scritchfield said he was “finally able to lock in critical analysis after hearing him break down the poem line by line.”

Classic literature felt like it was written “in a different language” to Scritchfield, so Woznak’s lessons “made it feel more understandable.”

Next chapter

Woznak wants to “take it easy” during his retirement.

“It will be nice not worrying about driving the Loretto road,” he said, adding that he can shovel his sidewalk “whenever he wants.”

He does plan, however, to continue making literature and song connections in his free time because it keeps him interested.

The most difficult part of his retirement is “making connections, but having no one to share them with.”

“That’s what teaching is,” he said, adding that educators “can’t wait” to share information with their students.

Another positive from his teaching career is watching former students become professors and seeing them adopt his same approach to teaching classic literature, he said.

English and psychology double major Alyssa Noel wants to be one of those students.

As a student in his 17th Century Literature class, she wrote a paper comparing the contents of “Mac Flecknoe” to the drama between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

She said her ability to compare and contrast subject matter improved after the assignment.

In the future, she plans on becoming a professor, so she said it was a “privilege” to experience Woznak as a teacher before his retirement.

“He is the kind of professor I want to be for my students,” she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.