CPS educator Sam DeFiglio dies at 91

When Sam DeFiglio learned that one of his students, a child with Down syndrome, had health problems that might shorten his life, the assistant principal organized a king-for-a-day celebration to give the boy something wonderful to remember.

Teachers and staffers at Courtenay School — billed in the 1970s as Chicago’s first school for intellectually and developmentally disabled children — busied themselves with the boy’s special day.

“We worked with Sam on making him the ‘king’ of the school,” said Tomasine “Tommy” Romano, a retired clerk at Courtenay, 1726 W. Berteau. “He was elected king and there was a parade. He [Mr. DeFiglio] had the whole school involved. They had the teachers’ aides and the children making flowers out of crepe paper. They had a cape for the young man and a crown. It was really beautiful.”

Mr. DeFiglio also supported the introduction of proms at Courtenay. “He went to the dances — and he danced,” said Patricia Jablonski, a retired teacher from the school. “He never missed coming.”

He organized student field trips to museums, the zoo and Cubs games. And he helped establish work programs for high-functioning youths to do factory jobs. Colleagues say it was a remarkable approach in an era when kids with disabilities were often sidelined.

“He was a person with a heart that was very large and loving,” said Janet DeFiglio, his wife of more than 50 years. The students “responded to him and they adored him.”

Mr. DeFiglio, 91, died on Feb. 3 at his Edgebrook home after a 15-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

He met Janet Bachta when both taught at Burr School. “He asked me if I would walk with him or go to the movies with him,” she said. “I was his sweetheart.”

“After dating and respecting each other and going out together, we decided we’d like to live together forever,” she said, “and that’s when we decided to get married.”

To save money, they spent their first two years of marriage living in Humboldt Park with her Polish-born parents, where Mr. DeFiglio — a child of Sicilian immigrants — discovered a cosmos of unfamiliar kitchen aromas. “He had to get used to the smell of sauerkraut,” said their daughter, Pam DeFiglio.

In the 1970s, the DeFiglios stepped off the treadmill of daily life. After studying Arthur Frommer’s book “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day,” they requested sabbaticals from their CPS jobs and took their children out of school for almost four months to tour Europe. The DeFiglios visited 11 countries between Labor Day and Christmas, getting around by bus and Eurail pass, staying at B&Bs and pensiones.

The trip bewitched and transformed them. “We learned a lot, especially about history,” their daughter said. “Some of the thrilling parts were traveling through the Alps by train and just seeing those majestic mountains. And being in London with the palaces of the kings and queens, and seeing so much artwork and so many museums. The Vatican was really awe-inspiring. We took a boat across the Mediterranean to Morocco.”

“It was extremely daring,” Pam DeFiglio said. “This was obviously in the era before cellphones. The only way to contact us was to write a letter to the American Express office in the cities where we were going to be, and the American Express office would hold the mail. They had a sense of adventure.”

They also visited Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. They toured Italy with Mr. DeFiglio’s uncle, Padre Emideo, a Franciscan monk who lived in a Sicilian monastery. Pam DeFiglio said her attempts to converse with her great-uncle resulted in her studying “la bella lingua” later on.

Mr. DeFiglio’s father, Pietro “Peter” DeFiglio, was a barber from Bompietro, Sicily. His mother Giovannina “Jennie” DiFalco, from the Sicilian town of Acate, was a seamstress. Growing up near the intersection of Ashland and Ohio, Sam and his brother Joe and their cousins “would often have arguments to determine who had the biggest nose,” Pam DeFiglio said.

During World War II, he was drafted into the Army. His mother prayed to St. Teresa and all her favorite saints for his safety. Mr. DeFiglio wound up returning home after a base accident in which a truck rolled over his foot. The war ended without him having to go overseas.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and worked at Burr and Manierre schools before joining Courtenay.

The DeFiglios raised their children in Budlong Woods and Edgebrook. Outgoing and chatty, “My dad was always watering the grass and talking to every neighbor,” his daughter said.

He was active with the Gregorians, a group of Italian-American educators. Often, he was asked to emcee their scholarship fundraisers, where attendees never seemed to mind such vintage DeFiglio jokes as: “Do you want to get ahead? Go to barber college.”

He also is survived by two grandchildren, Genna and Mark. Services have been held.