When my brothers and I were young, our mom was our greatest supporter, but she never let us get too big for our britches.
When one of us was trying to impress someone with the knowledge we’d learned in school, and being show-offy about it, she’d bring us back to earth.
“All that education hasn’t taught you a lick of manners or common sense,” she said more than once.
When I told her I was thinking of going for my Ph.D., she said I ought to work a while first and get some real-world experience, and some money in the bank.
Without some real-life experience to give education perspective, she figured a Ph.D. just stood for “Piled Higher and Deeper.”
I always thought that was pretty funny, but as the years have gone by, I’ve learned that in some cases, that’s exactly what Ph.D. stands for.
Take the case of (former) Dr. James Wasser.
When word first came out several weeks ago that Wasser had gotten his ginned-up Ph.D. from Breyer State University, a shadowy online university that awards credits for “life experience” and extra credit for students who make significant donations to the place, Wasser went into bunker mode in the face of increasing criticism.
He was mightily offended by stories about his worthless degree and the extra money he was paid because of it that appeared in our newspaper, the News Transcript.
And he was outraged by a column I wrote about him, in which I said he ought to be embarrassed to look his colleagues and staff in the eye after the revelations, especially those who earned their degrees the old-fashioned way — by working for them — from schools that didn’t have to keep moving from state to state like confidence men.
He said I’d been horribly unfair to him, and that he’d never speak to the News Transcript again. As far as I know, he’s lived up to that threat, not that I’d have much to talk with him about anyway.
But it doesn’t really matter, because that sucking sound you hear coming from the Freehold Regional High School District is the noise made by the remainder of Wasser’s credibility as it’s chewed up by the wood chipper.
A few weeks ago, I wrote another column in which I mentioned that Wasser might have more to worry about than his treatment by the News Transcript or me.
And darned if that hasn’t turned out to be true.
Last week, the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education told Wasser and two other FRHSD administrators that they had to quit using the Dr. in front of their names.
So I guess it’s back to Mr. Wasser again. And it’s back to Ms. Donna Evangelista, assistant superintendent of schools in the FRHSD, and Mr. Frank Tanzini, a retired assistant superintendent of schools. They both got their Ph.D. diplomas from Wasser’s alma mater, and cashed in on them just the way he did.
The Board of Education of the FRHSD was scheduled to meet about this matter on Sept. 8, which was after this column was written, so I don’t know how that all turned out. At the very least, they’re going to have to cut Wasser’s salary, and take away the extra money he gets every year on account of his bogus Ph.D.
But I think they’re going to have to go further than that. Because he no longer has much credibility, and has been caught gaming the system, I think they’re going to have to ask for Wasser’s resignation.
There’s just no way he can continue to lead an institution that taxpayers support to the tune of $175 million this year.
And if Wasser was the sort of fellow who’d do the right thing, he’d save them the trouble of asking for his resignation and resign immediately.
There’s an old Russian proverb that a fish rots from the head down, and this particular fish has caused a lot of rot in the FRHSD. You can see this week’s editorial in the News Transcript for details, but that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. The board needs to start from square one and start rebuilding its own tattered credibility, and the place to start is with a new superintendent.
And if MISTER Wasser has a problem with that, he can give me a call. He has my number.
When the phone doesn’t ring, I guess I’ll know it’s him. • • • When I was growing up, we only had one television channel in our town, so programming was limited. But every Saturday, they featured professional wrestling, and we looked forward to it like it was the Super Bowl.
We all had our favorites — Haystacks Calhoun, Gorgeous George, Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, Sgt. Slaughter — but the guy we all loved to hate was Killer Kowalski.
Killer’s signature move was the claw, and he once actually tore an opponent’s ear off in the ring.
He was a bad guy. So bad, in fact, that people threw stuff at him when he got in the ring.
Years later, I had the opportunity to meet Kowalski. I was editing a paper on the North Shore of Boston, and Kowalski, who retired from the ring in 1977, had opened a wrestling school in Malden, Mass.
I don’t know what I expected, but Killer turned out to be one of the nicest, most polite and charitable people I’ve ever interviewed.
He told me that professional wrestling was indeed fake (Surprise!), but that professional wrestlers were some of the best athletes in the country. You can’t leap off the top turnbuckle and onto an opponent’s chest if you’re a doughboy, he said.
He was also a darned good photographer.
Killer Kowalski died Aug. 30 in Everett, Mass. He was 81.
I just want to say thanks for the memories, Killer. If you’re wrestling in that big ring in the sky, I imagine you still come out as a bad guy, ready to use that celestial claw.
But we know the truth, and you said it yourself. At heart, you were always a pussycat.
Gregory Bean is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].