John T. Bogdan, longtime teacher, musician, singer, and world traveler, has died at 95

John T. Bogdan, 95, of Ardsley, longtime teacher at Jarrettown Elementary and Sandy Run Middle Schools in the Upper Dublin School District, musician, singer, veteran, and world traveler, died Tuesday, Oct. 15, of complications from age-associated issues at his home.

Mr. Bogdan taught reading, spelling, math, vocabulary, English, and other subjects to young students in Montgomery County for 31 years, from 1957 to his retirement in 1988. He was known to pass out pretzel sticks, and sometimes Popsicles, when his students did well in class, and he shared in vivid detail the wide-ranging information he brought back from two long sabbatical adventures to South and Central America.

He called his students Miss and Mister, and spent 20 years at Jarrettown before moving to Sandy Run in 1977 during a school district realignment. Everyone said he had remarkably neat penmanship. Colleagues said he kept meticulous class records.

“He helped launch me and many others into the world by urging us to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” a former student said in a tribute. A former fellow teacher said: “John was a caring, kind gentleman, and it was my pleasure to have known him.”

Using patience and kindness, former students said, he made even summer school math fun. One time, a former student said, Mr. Bogdan left the picket line during a teachers strike in the 1970s to sit on the curb and explain a knotty math problem to a perplexed sixth grader.

“I’ll always remember him telling our class that he hated the adjective ‘nice’ and that we were never to use it,” a former student said. “He was the best, and I’ll never forget him.”

He took sabbaticals from teaching in 1967 to visit five countries in Central America and in 1973 to explore 10 countries in South America. He examined the Mayan ruins in Mexico in 1958 and traveled to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York and 1976 World’s Fair in Montreal.

“He went to the Galápagos Islands that year,” a former student said of 1973, “and we learned about some of the wildlife there.”

Mr. Bogdan played the violin and viola with the Central High School orchestra when he was a student in the 1940s and rose to assistant concertmaster of the Germantown Youth Orchestra when he was 17. He started violin lessons when he was 6 and later performed in concerts in Philadelphia and Ocean City, N.J.

He was also director of his church choir for 56 years and a singer with the Abington Choral Club for 30 years. One of his favorite songs was Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria.”

His parents were cofounders of the Descent of the Holy Spirit Romanian Orthodox Church that relocated from Philadelphia to Elkins Park, and he worked as a counselor at its summer camp in Michigan. He was drafted into the Army in 1953 and served two years as an engineer and office worker in Germany.

“He taught other GIs to read and write during basic training in Missouri,” said his cousin Erik Brauer. “He loved to help you if he could.”

John Theodore Bogdan was born March 12, 1929, in Philadelphia. He grew up during the Great Depression, entered high school early at 13, and graduated from Central in 1946.

He attended Drexel University for a few months after high school and then worked for an engineering firm for two years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in education at what is now Bloomsburg University in 1953 and a master’s degree in education at Temple University in 1958.

Mr. Bogdan loved animals, especially his dogs Bonnie, Clyde, Shannon, and Bubba. He fed pounds of pecans to the neighborhood squirrels, friends said.

He followed the Eagles, Phillies, and Yankees on TV. He read his large-print Bible often and confronted cancer, heart issues, and other ailments. He enjoyed puzzles of all sorts and never forgot the names and faces of many friends, friends of friends, and former students.

“His dedication to the church, his talents, and his teaching made him a place in so many hearts,” his family said in a tribute.

His cousin said: “He was a very good soul.” A former student said: “Who could ever forget him?”

In addition to his cousin, Mr. Bogdan is survived by other relatives.

Services were held on Oct. 21.

Donations in his name may be made to St. Labre Indian School, Ashland, Mont. 59004.