User:James M. Rouse
~ James M. Rouse ~
Born April 8th, 1963 in Parkchester, N.Y. to John F. and Agnes R. Rouse, James is the third of five siblings raised by the ancestors of Irish immigrants with a strong Roman Catholic creed. James' family moved to Suffolk County, Long Island, when he was three years old, as he eventually came to age in the historic seaport town of Port Jefferson, New York.
His father, the late John F. Rouse, (“Jack”), was born in the year 1929 to Martin and Loretta Rouse, who had married and dwelled in the West Village area of Manhattan, and soon after moved to Long Island City, Queens. Martin Rouse climbed the ranks of the N.Y.P.D. , but the family lived through times of economic hardship and sacrifice, as seemed to be typical for the day. James' father, Mr. John F. Rouse, a scholar and a gentleman, eventually succumbed to a rare case of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease acquired at the young age of fifty. Thankfully, he had an unbreakable habit of praying outside of the homestead window before dawn each morning, and his primary wish to indoctrinate and educate his children in accordance with the Roman Catholic faith was long fulfilled before his work was done. A Korean War veteran with two Masters degrees, and a career as a New York City public school teacher leading to his appointment as a college professor, permeated the home environment with covert, contagious, and competitive acedemian agenda among his offspring that was prominently exemplified by his wife and built an enduring foundation for his children. His only surviving sibling, as his late brother had been fallen by Scarlett Fever at the age of sixteen, was the late Catherine L. Rouse, who, for ninety-two years, thrived on her own merits and remained a doting sister and aunt to her relatives before she rested in peace in the same apartment building that housed her younger brother in his formative years.
His mother, the late Agnes R. Rouse, was born to Helen and Peter Roberts of Astoria, Queens, in the year 1934, and was surrounded by many siblings close in age, and of modest means. Agnes was the most tenacious, brilliant, and hard-working woman known to her beloved husband and offspring, with a work ethic that never, ever seemed to quit, up and until the September 1995 morning that she was taken peacefully into the gates of heaven. Her early adolescent years, filled with a bit more struggle and adjustment than her peers, did not impede her from earning the perfect attendance award from Bryant High School. Her rise to the position of Administrative Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Stony Brook University came as no surprise to those who knew and loved her, as her entire adult life was spent modeling success, hard work, honesty, and integrity for her children. These character traits were transparent early on in her life, as she became the apple of the eyes of a wealthy business man and his wife: Martin and Mary Duffy of the Bronx. Agnes and one of her sisters, the late Kathleen, eventually enjoyed the company of this couple at their estate, along with step-sister Irene. It’s of record that Mrs. Rouse and her sister were ultimately the product of dual families of Irish descent, coloring her adulthood with even more wisdom that could have ever been accrued beyond her years had fate had it any other way.
The late wedded couple had met in a most unusual happenstance that occurred on July 31st, 1955, as Agnes was out on the town with three of her closest girlfriends, looking every bit as attractive in appearance that she maintained throughout her life. A young man by the name of "Jack" Rouse was keeping company with three of his childhood pals up upon a fire escape where there had been quite a festive gathering inside of the dwelling which had anchored the fire escape, and it was all too obvious to the young ladies passing by that the quartet of merry gentleman had been expressing a most respectful interest in, what they had hoped, would be their new-found company for the evening, or, for perhaps, a longer length of time.
As it was, the four young men and the four young women united that evening to celebrate the 21st birthday of the stunning and intelligent young lady who sported all of the accessories of a stunning woman with elegance and panache to boot.Jack, immediately smitten with her, improvised the unaccompanied singing of a popular song of the day, lyricing in a feigned tenor voice, vibratode with romance, how a true lady outwardly declines when she secretly, and truly, really doesn't want to resist invitation to budding romance. At this point, Jack was merely humored by the young Agnes, as it appeared to simply be all in good fun. After a number of years, that fateful and magical evening resulted in four separate occasions marking the Holy matrimony of all four couples, which included the April 1958 wedding mass and reception of Jack and Agnes. The other three marriages eventually ended in divorce, all except the union of the birthday girl and the wanna-be crooner.
Jack was a bit slight in build, and considered to be somewhat diminutive in stature, as his father was. He, at first, was not the realization of the young woman's ambitions until one unforgettable event that had occurred slightly offshore of City Island, as the four couples rented a small row boat for a summer outing. This slightly built young fellow, who had now enjoyed the status as a veteran both to and from overseas deployments, had kept a secret from the woman who he loved so dearly: he had never learned to swim! However, his close friends knew this and playfully threw him out of the boat in what they'd perceived as a recreational prank. As the young men certainly intended to jump into the heavy currents and scoop him to safety, it was Agnes who watched over him like an angel and would have none of it. She immediately pulled her shoes off and jumped into the water after him, pulled him from the undercurrent, and embraced his entire body while keeping his head above water, and, due to her determination and exceptional talent as an enduring swimmer, brought him to safety. It was at that very moment that she fully realized just how much she loved her future husband, and from that time on pledged to marry him and take care of him for the rest of their God-given days. This was an oath that she held true to, up and until the evening he finally shivered his last in a hospital bed, surrounded by his loving family in a Veterans hospital; more than three decades later.
Tragically, as is typical for care-takers of early onset Alzheimer's victims, an eleven year ordeal of watching her equal deteriorate to ultimate demise, Mrs. John F. Rouse succumbed to her own mortality only three years later, as her children held vigil by her bedside until the final closure of her beautiful brown eyes. Buried together at Calverton National Cemetery, her epitaph reads: "Mom, you are forever loved and missed by your five kids." Her husband 's side of the same limestone chronicles his years of military service, and is appropriately furnished with an inscribed icon of a crucifix.
Promises had been made, and promises had been kept. For the most meaningful of all promises kept alive until today and beyond was, and still remains to be, the pledge that all offspring would carry on their parent's legacy by scaffolding and building their lives and families the way they were taught, by example. This life-long endeavor includes always being mindful of doing God's work while each young offspring aspired to the best of their potential, all the while keeping their eyes on the prize of striving for success in both celebration and rememberance of the honorable lives lived by Mr. and Mrs. John F. Rouse.
James enjoys being surrounded by strong successful bookends of love which include two younger and two older siblings. John H., his older brother, enjoys his status as a veteran Jurice Doctorate who succeeded quite well at morphing his people skills and brilliant mind to expressly serve the citizens of Long Island, New York, as an elected public official with all of the honor and integrity pledged to uphold within his sworn oath. After many years as an ambitious attorney and elected official, he now occupies a prominent judgeship within the Courts, honorably presiding over litigious matters within the County of Suffolk. His older sister, Mary, an accomplished and celebrated third grade teacher, married a young Irish Bostonian by the name of Thomas while in her mid-twenties, and they brought into the fold three precious gifts bearing the names of Lauren, Jack, and Nicole. Mary's prominent and enduring work ethic, undoubtedly modeled after her late mother, lead her to recognized success as an educator with honors. Joseph Rouse, one year James’ junior, began his career as a Certified Public Accountant as soon as he reached the age of independence. Driven by the will to succeed, he did so, and continues to do so, as he fathers Christine, Michael, and Danny- borne to him by his first wife, Arleene Gildersleeve. Joseph, since the early part of the current century, found new and everlasting love in the company of a one Joanne Mezzatesta, a woman who enjoys the status as his second wife, and is so extremely admired and beloved by Joseph’s extended family. Patricia A. Rouse, cited as two years in age of James’ junior, was truly the object of James’ protection and affection while growing up, as James had always adored and cherished her youthful but spunky presence. Patricia is now the devoted mother of Matthew and Nicholas, born only in recent years, as they will someday come to wonder, in admiration, how their mother balanced a life-long career as a most successful litigator, eventually leading to her appointement as County Senior Attorney, but found the ambition and the time to raise the two of them.
James attended Infant Jesus Elementary School, as well as both St. Anthony’s High School and Port Jefferson High school on Long Island, graduating in 1981 with a scholarship bound for Ithaca College School of Music, the first Conservatory of Music in the State of New York. His college-bound scholarship remains an enduring debt of gratitude that he owes to former high school music teacher John T. Still, who recognized, cultivated, and celebrated the newly-found musical gifts that James had unknowingly harbored all of his life. Mr. John T. Still was subsequently honored for his paramount role in James’ life, and the lives of many other students, at Avery Fischer Hall in Lincoln Center, when James was given the honor to take the podium for graduating at the top of his class with a Masters degree in Special Education, which lead to a funded scholarship towards a Masters degree in School Administration and Supervision.
Immediately after graduating from Ithaca College School of Music with a baccalaureate degree in Music Education, James began his career as an educator as the chorus/general music teacher at Sayville High School on Long Island. He then moved on to serve the community of Greenlawn, New York, in his capacity as a chorus and general music teacher for both elementary and middle school in the Harborfields school district. While simultaneously keeping up with his career as a pianist who specialized in the most unique piano stylings colored by years of intense study of music theory, he then took to the public venue on a nightly basis performing regularly at such storied spots as ‘ One Fifth’, (New York, N.Y..), ‘The Mark Hopkins Hotel’, (San Fransisco, C.A.), ‘The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’, (Los Angeles, C.A.), Medici56, (New York, N.Y.), and enjoyed appearing at both Tavern on the Green and the Pierre Hotel, where, at the latter venue, he performed the entire wedding ceremony for the young and vibrant entrepreneurs of Medici56 at perhaps one of the most opulent ceremonies afforded for the time.
After years of enjoying such a privileged routine of expressing perhaps the most beautiful art form to thralls of civilians, celebrities, politicians, and other notables, the notion of educating children about the studies of music returned as a priority in James’ life. While still playing nightly in the City of New York, he became insinuated into a career centered around teaching music to both the emotionally disturbed and learning disabled children residing within the City. These students ranged in age from five to twenty-one years old, and, for eleven years, inspired James to take up advanced study in Special Education in a labor of love that would enable him to understand how he may be able to hybrid core content subject area knowledge combined with the musical delivery of such diverse units of study, thus leading him to resurrect, study, practice, and deliver direct instruction in conjunction with the theories of Dr. Howard Gardner, the father of the valuable notion of multiple intelligences. Such an ongoing endeavor eventually gave life to an administrative thesis culminating in permanent licensure for school administration, and centered around research-based best practices for teaching and learning all aspects of a school curriculum through participation in the Arts. The finality of the thesis included a professionally made recording of the original songs that James had both written and arranged in honor of his students who he cared so much for, and his fellow teachers who were seeking more diverse methods of enticing their students to acquire the much needed information to eventually be mainstreamed in to a less-restrictive learning environment. At this point in James' career, he was dually enthralled with a never-ending quest for learning the best practices of educating the exceptional learner, and celebrating all of the various potentials held by his fellow teachers and para professionals. He proudly took the lead role in assisting all pedagogues with the navigation of the certification process because of his strong inner beliefs about the parallels between highly qualified pedagogues and the superior quality of direct instruction to whom should be considered worthy of the recipients of the most current, data-driven, and researched based modes of methodology. and best possible
As a veteran educator devoted to the holistic education of each and every child in his school, James currently enjoys teaching music in the New York City Department of Education, while tending to many other service and community oriented projects, and maintaining his role as an integral part of various educational and professional committees. His eleven years as an ambitious and driven performing solo and collaborative pianist, an endeavor which took him across the country and back, honed his piano skills to that of such ongoing perfection, completion, and enjoyment, that James considers his relationship to the instrument as paramount to all stages of development, change, and experiences that he has cherished in his adult life.
Additionally, James enjoyed over twenty years as an enduring long distance runner, completing a couple of marathons and making quite a few headlines as a runner who thrived on taking to the sport during uniquely inclement and challenging weather conditions. During an infamous December New York Nor' easter, James' photograph was circulated throughout the Associated Press as he was negotiating multiple feet of snow accompanied by blinding winds, while being the lone runner on a Brooklyn Bridge steep incline with zero visibility.
In his early twenties, while enjoying the life of a high-society pianist in San Francisco, California, James used to complete his daily eleven mile run in the most difficult possible way: by racing the tourist-filled Trolley cars from the bottom of California Street to the very top of Nobb Hill, sprinting as fast as he could as tourists would cheer him on in amazement. This mountainous climb was representative of a hill that James would never find too high to climb, in both the literal and metaphoric sense of the phrase. It had only been a year or so after the Stony Brook Herald newspaper had written quite a story about his daily eleven mile runs starting and finishing up the hills of Port Jefferson, New York, as the well-written article was laced with a theme of "never giving up" in the face of challenge and/or adversity.
Matching that same sentiment almost exactly, the well-respected periodical titled 'The Villager' in lower Manhattan employed an accomplished photographer who had spotted James running in almost three feet of water overflowing from the neighboring Hudson River during a notable hurricane in the mid nineteen-nineties. After briefly speaking with James, she reported to her editor and advised him to feature this determined runner in their sports section, which was done soon after, resulting in yet another publicly-printed piece about a young man who was irresistibly drawn to the combination of mother nature's wrath with the ultimate way of experiencing the power and beauty of it.
James Rouse, Educator and Musician, forever dwells in a historically landmarked townhouse in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. He reports his daily life as being over-filled with love, happiness, and good fortune as he puts his students first, passionately advocating for them- especially his exceptional learners, and just about anyone who needs an occasional helping hand in life.
Pictured below: James Rouse taking the podium at Lincoln Center for graduating at the top of his class with an MS in Special Education. His commencement speech frames the honor of the life's work of high school music teacher John T. Still, a man who will forever be remembered for his legacy of bringing many young scholars into the world of Conservatory level of Musical studies, leading to other advanced degrees and life-long learning.''
