Matthew Joseph Levay was born on July 17, 1975. He attended Tinker Elementary School, West Side Middle School, and Kennedy High School. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Connecticut and a master's degree in education at the University of Bridgeport. He was a 7th grade Social Studies teacher at North End Middle School for 2 years and I was lucky enough to be in his class. He also taught summer school at Wallace. He attended Blessed Sacrament Church.
He died on Sunday, July 14 at Saint Mary's Hospital just 3 days before his birthday and a month before his wedding (the wedding was planned for August 16), from a motorcycle accident on July 8. Turning left into a gas station on South Main St., Auri Marshall, 22, hit him in his car. Marshall then took the plate off his car and bought a soda, then left the scene. He went home and told his wife to call the police and report the car as stolen. (I heard this also, but I don't know how true it is) Supposedly he told his wife that he hit a guy on his motorcycle and that he was fine. Marshall was charged with first-degree assault(likely to be changed to manslaughter),evading responsibility, operating a motor vehicle without a license, failure to meet minimum insurance regulations, failure to renew registration, misuse of plates and failure to grant the right of way. (either charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.) Matt Levay leaves behind his fiance, his parents and his brother and sister.
He was more than a teacher to all of us, he always knew how to make us laugh and knew how to make class fun. He even made Social Studies interesting.
Mr. Levay we love u and we'll miss u!
(He was buried in All Saints Cemetery in case u want to visit him.)
Donations can be made to the Matt Levay Scholarship Fund , in care of Webster Bank, 544 Straits Turnpike, Watertown 06795.
-his smile
-his voice
-his hair always looking perfect
-How he always knew how to make us laugh
-His baby blue shirt and tie that matched perfectly
-His adorable glasses
-him singing "I'm Sorry Ms. Jackson" and "So Fresh and So Clean Clean" in the hallways
-Whenever he would say something he would put -ito at the end (testito)
-In Lake Compounce in 7th grade, him laughing at me and Orgeta when we were screaming on the Zoomerang
-How as soon as we got to Lake Compounce, he kept saying he was hungry for a cheeseburger
-How I missed him over the weekends and when he wasn't at school
-How he used to make believe he was talking Spanish to Mrs. Beauchamp
-How he would actually try to say Spanish words
-How 2 boys in the class gave him a book to learn Spanish for Christmas
-How I used to stare at him in class and Sam told me he must have noticed
-How whenever he called on me Megan would look at me and laugh
-How when me and Megan were passing a note talkin about him, he caught us
-How the one time I wasn't paying attention in class he called on me
-How he was dancing merengue with Mrs. Beauchamp at the 7th grade dance
-How much fun we had with him when he came with us to our Peer Helpers trip to Holiday Hill in 7th grade
-How cute he looked playing basketball at the teachers vs. students basketball game
-How he used to act like Ms. Cleo
-How he used to say "Keepin it real"
-How he said he was Blackenese
-How when he yelled at someone, I would smile, not because it was funny, but because he looked cute when he was mad
-How whenever he took someone's Pokemon cards, he would be like "Oh I should give these to my little brother."
-How he laughed when Crystal kicked a boy in the groin
-How his signature looked like scribbles and he used to tell people to sign their agenda for him
-How he said good stuff about me to my mom at Open House
-How on one of Mark Lasky's papers, he forgot to put the Y in his name and Mr. Levay kept crackin on him and calling him Mark Lask
-How he hugged everyone good-bye on the last day of 7th grade
-How glad I was that he moved across the hall from Mrs. Pogo so I could look at him in Science when his door was open
-Me and Sam breaking our necks looking into the 7th grade hallway to see if he was there
-How when I was walking home from school one time, he drove by and yelled my name out the window
-What he wrote in my yearbook, and how he spelled my name "Anhelika"
-How when Sam gave him a paper flower, he was smelling it
-How he was always all up in our business and knew who was going out with who
-How he was dancin at lunch when he found out that Crystal and Jonathan started goin out
-How when me and Orgeta were walking back from U.A. he threw his gum up in the air and tried to catch it in his mouth, but he missed and it fell on the floor, and Mrs. Surat was like "Gross!!"
-Him talkin to the kids about video games
-How I cried when I heard the news
-The teachers trying to be strong and support us
-Mr. Hernandez trying to make me feel better when he saw me crying
-How many people were at his wake and his funeral and how long the line was at his wake, but me thinking how it was worth it
-At the funeral, the priest saying how he and his fiance were always late to church because of him
-At the funeral, someone sayin that he and his fiance Carri-Ann were soulmates (*sniffle*)
-At the funeral, someone saying that he was going to heaven on his motorcycle doing a wheelie and stopping to fix his hair
Things people wrote about Mr. Levay in the yearbook under the section "What I remember most about North End is..."
-How Mr. Levay made every class fun. Latasha Jones
-Mr. Levay singing Outkast duing Social Studies. Robert Geraci
-Mr. Levay my favorite teacher. Mark Lasky
-Spending the whole day with Mr. Levay on our field trip to Lake Compounce in 7th grade. Samantha Buzzelli
Here's a poem that they gave out at his wake *it's a tearjerker*
~*God Set Me Free*~
Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free
I'm following the path God laid for me
I took God's hand when I heard the call;
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day
To laugh, to love, to work, or play
Tasks left undone must stay that way
I found that place at the close of the day.
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss
Ah yes, these things, I too, will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow,
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I savored much,
good friends, goodtimes, a loved one's touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief;
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your heart and share with me-
God wanted me now, God set me free.
(He was buried in All Saints Cemetery in case u want to visit him.)
Donations can be made to the Matt Levay Scholarship Fund , in care of Webster Bank, 544 Straits Turnpike, Watertown 06795.
