Educator Pasqual Schievella, 97

After stints in a factory and making cement blocks, Pasqual Sebastian Schievella enrolled at Port Jefferson High School at the age of 23. He went on to earn his bachelor's, master's degree and doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University.

His daughter, Andrea Schievella of Boston, said her father's desire for an education was a testament to his "insatiable curiosity."

"Nobody could tell him that something wasn't possible," Andrea said. "He was just somebody that did not know 'no' as an answer, and he set that example for his children."

Schievella, 97, died of heart failure May 16 at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson.

Teaching at Suffolk County Community College up until his death, Schievella's passions were philosophy, critical thinking and critical analysis. He introduced and wrote the text for Islip High School's first philosophy course and later founded and published the Journal of Critical Analysis.

In 1970, Schievella became chairman of the department of philosophy and religion at Jersey City State College and later went on to teach at Queens College, the New York Institute of Technology and Suffolk County Community College.

He also published two books, "Critical Analysis: Language and Its Functions," and "Hey! Is That You, God?"

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"People say that he was the best teacher they've ever had," said his son, Randy Schievella. "He taught me a great deal."

Schievella was born in Bayonne, N.J., on March 9, 1914. He became a ward of the state at 3 years old because his father had died and his mother was destitute. Twelve years later, he was returned to his mother and stepfather. One of six siblings, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade to work in a lace factory and later as a cement brick maker. His family moved to Port Jefferson in 1929.

Schievella served in World War II for about four years, receiving training as a .30- and .50-caliber machine-gunner. He got the regimental commander's permission to form a 14-piece 29th infantry regimental dance orchestra, where he served as conductor, teacher and arranger.

"He was a man of many talents," said Randy, of Hyannis, Mass. "He was a very good musician, a very good poet and quite the taskmaster as it relates to stuff around the home."

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Four years before his death, he even wrote his own obituary. "We were all laughing at him," said Andrea Schievella. "We were like, 'Dad, really, you're writing your own obituary?' "

She said her father also found beauty in everyday life.

"He very much appreciated nature," she says. "He lived on three acres of land surrounded by woods, and he was just in awe of beautiful things."

Pasqual was predeceased by his first wife of 19 years, Sara Rebecca Truluck, and his second wife of 46 years, Shirley S. Evans.

Other survivors include daughters Rebecca Dale Junco of Mulberry, Fla., and Patricia Maureen Ellis of Mechanicsville, Va.; two stepchildren, Susan Louise Evans of Bluffton, S.C., and Daniel Evans of Australia; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Burial services in Coram on May 20 were private.