This section will talk about my likes loves, and lusts outside of the educational environment.  Some of these have carried back into school like my being the gardener for the school memorial garden, or as a playwright with my murder mystery about a retirement part for a school superintendent. It also looks at the biggest strength in my life, my family.

Nicknames are hard to shed.  Most people know me as Thom.  It started in college when I was involved with the student government and found myself with five other Tom’s.   My father’s first company when he went out on his own was Thom Rosati INC.  He even had old generic letterhead and stationery, so I started signing with Thom.  Being involved with theater this has now stuck with me as a “stage name”, so anywhere I’ve gone “Thom” has followed.  I’m trying to use Tom more that I am letting the gray hairs show, but I am sure to some I will eventually be Dr. Thom.

My Family

My Parents
I’m getting ready to turn 50 in 2007 which means I am as old as Sputnik and the space program. When I was born, there were only 48 states in the United States.  Of Course ANYONE born after 1912 and before 1959 can make a similar claim.

There is the possibility that I will be the first Seminole to graduate with a doctorate from St. John’s.  It’s also possible that I’m not Seminole.  My history starts in Miami for the first five days of my life, and then I was adopted by my parents. These are my parents, and I have never had much desire to go searching for birth parents. Like marriage, adoption is a time when a family is fused forever. They say that marriage makes two into one. In our family it was 3 into 1, 4 into 1 and finally 5 into 1.

The interesting thing is that my parents were always picked out in a crowd as my parents because I do share very similar coloring and features.  It was only when my parents would be out with a brunette, blond and redhead of different sizes and shapes were questioning looks thrown our way. The Family Photo Album has a few family photos through the years.

Nancy
I met my wife the first week of college. We were introduced as members of the St. John’s glee club by my piano teacher who was also her chorus teacher.  That was over 30 years ago, and we are still here.  They say that opposites attract, and that is a good description of the two of us.  We compliment each other very well in what one is good at, the other often isn’t.  She studied quantitative analysis at St. John’s and had a career as a bank vice president designing banking software.  When their Cobol based system finally was retired, so was her job, and she used this situation to start a web design company for small businesses.  She also is working with a theater production company when not doing interviews with Broadway personalities.  You can see the variety of websites she works on at NancyRosati.com and her theater interviews can be seen at TalkinBroadway.com.

My work in the doctoral program and even this portfolio would not have been possible without her constant assistance. She has picked up so much of the slack for day to day activities throughout this process. These little things become major things when you are living, eating, and breathing your dissertation. Family has a  few family photos through the years.

Nancy and I are proudest  of our two now young adults, Colleen and Tommy       

Colleen
My daughter graduated magna cum laude from Providence College this year as a double major in music and theater. She is an amazingly talented  first soprano and performed  her senior recital on March 18th. She would love eventually to become a Broadway conductor and has arranged the scores to shows she has directed and produced (as well as costumed and provided props). She has finished her last year at Usdan Performing Arts Center where she began when she attended the camp program there, and has moved on to a position with Disney Theatrical Productions in Times Square. There is always music in the house when she is home with the piano being her old friend.  We know she is very happy with her boyfriend Joe (shown here), and welcome him into our family. I’d love the portfolio presentation to mirror some of the structure that was a part of her recital. Nancy created a website that details her recital. More photos can be found in the Family and Theater sections with and without her proud papa.

Tommy
My son is a sophomore at Suffolk Community Honors College and has just turned 18. He plans to graduate early in January and move onto a SUNY school, majoring in Communications. He is my clone in many ways, some of which I apologize to my mother for on a regular basis.  He has great understanding and comic timing, and could easily be a stand-up comedian.  He is moving from the world of “undeclared” where he has looked at music, game designer, CIA agent or chiropractor as possible career tracks. Like his father, he has a wide variety of interests and talents. He is probably one of the most caring and compassionate people I know.  Like the rest of the family he has very eclectic musical tastes; classics, rock, Streetlight Manifesto or show tunes on his I-pod.  He has appeared in over 50 theatrical productions, and feels that nothing can ever embarrass him after he wore a kilt on stage (I stood next to him in my kilt on that stage so I know what he meant.) Some of his show pictures are included in the Theater and the Family sections. (And yes I’m proud of him too!)               

My Cohort

This is the group I have spent the last 3 years every month learning and growing together.  We have become a second family and the cohort process has put together individuals who have learned how to work together to accomplish great things.  I’d especially like to thank Jack for his support and guidance. We have worked on virtually every class project together, and just work and write really well together.  Someday maybe we will even get to do that professionally.

My Interests

Being a life long learner and educator does not leave much time for other things, but all work and no play makes Thom a dull boy, so I do try and stop to smell the roses as an avid gardener.  My house is in full bloom from early spring until the hard frost. During the Doctoral courses I have been very thankful for bulbs and perennials since very little gardening took place.  I enjoy designing the garden areas with phenology in mind. I’m not sure if anyone besides Dr. Smith is interested in the sequence of plant blooms, but from the crocus to the chrysanthemum, I like keeping the beds blooming. Here are some of the flowers that can be found in my yard in the sequence they bloom
Crocus, Daffodils, Tulips, Hyacinth ,Marigold, Forsythia, Heather, Plum Cherry, Bleeding Hearts, Clematis, Lilacs, Bougainvillea, Apple, Peach, Geranium, Azalea, Mums Rhododendrons, Iris, Snap Dragon, Roses, Peonies, Inpatients, Lilies, Foxglove Hydrangea, Hosta, Wisteria, Cone Flower,Cannas, Caladium, Butterfly Bush, Daisies, Sedum, Roses, Dahlias, Black Eyed Susan, Montauk Daisies, Chrysanthemum 

One passion I have not done much  of recently is recreational writing.   So far I have had five fully  interactive murder mysteries written and produced. The largest of these, Murder at Lairmont Manor, was written for Harmony Heights School with over 100 characters. It was fun working with their staff as the lead actors and being able to use their “Gold Coast” mansion as a backdrop for the action.  My last production was school-based in more ways than one.  Retirement Can Be Terminal featured BOCES staff in a fundraiser about killing off a school board member in the midst of a retirement party for a school superintendent, who was not leaving on his own terms.  Here is the cast of characters for that production. They are available for schools if they want to use them.  I have always had a flair for writing my own lyrics to familiar melodies.  I had been commissioned by the James Street Players to put together some pieces for their Anniversary show this year.  Here is one of the parodies I had constructed for the event. Bonavita Tonight (pdf format)

It is not that I am no longer writing, but last year I was doing more professional writing, between the doctoral courses and my assistive technology evaluations. I also have been published with a chapter on assistive technology for students with central auditory processing disorders with a professor I have known and admired for over 25 years, Dr. Donna Geffner.
Central Auditory Processing Disorders   

I’ve discussed contributing to a book with Dr. Hughes on school data and multimedia.  There may be aspects of my dissertation that would be appropriate to collaborate with Dr. Hughes on the methods we have been developing for district comparability.  I have included a chapter I submitted about being a datastician  to Dr. Hughes.  While the writing style and format are different my Chapter 2 could potentially use pieces of this chapter for the dissertation. Datastician

This year also marked my first professional article in the Long Island Education Review after a call for papers fr0m Dr. McGuire. 
I recently found myself in another book as I was thanked and quoted by Peter Filichia  in Let’s Put on a Musical –How to Choose the Right Show for your Theater

My latest “craze” has been kayaking. I had to give up running because of a leg injury, so I needed to find an aerobic activity that would  work.  I’ve been out on most large bodies of water around the Island, and St. John’s by the sea has a terrific combination of calm water and ocean boating.  I now have a waterproof bag and a new digital camera, so I will add some of the views that are only available from the water soon. This is a canoe we  took up the Nissequogue river when I was Cubmaster of pack 323.

Theater

The biggest non-work activity for the entire family has been theater.  We have been with the James Street Players for over 20 years.  While I have worked with other theaters and venues, including three of the Broadhollow theaters, and musical murder mysteries set in different time periods, James Street is always our home base.  The difference with the James Street organization is that it as professional  a theater organization as you will find, and yet everyone is a volunteer.  This allows full productions of musicals with professional costumes, sets and props, an orchestra of 20 or more, and a loyal group of advertisers and patrons.  I’ve directed four productions there, Pirates of Penzance, Fiorello!, Crazy for You, and Seussical the Musical. 

Seussical is a show that I have enjoyed since it first appeared on Broadway.  I am an avid fan of Dr. Seuss books, and knew it would be a bigger hit away from Broadway than on Broadway.  I got to play the Mayor of Who in the Long Island Premier at Bayway theater. I then directed the next production at James Street. That was challenging, because I had already committed to doing the show when I found that the doctoral  cohort was starting at the same time. 

Another show I took under during the course of these doctoral studies, was a two-person show called Pete 'n’ Keely.  We knew the author and wanted to see it performed, so we got to premiere it on Long Island. My wife directed, and with my good friend and frequent stage wife Carol, we learned a two person, two act show that had over 25 musical numbers.  We even did one number that included parts of over 50 songs about the United States.

Join the Circus

One interesting thing about being an actor is that Being on stage can keep you learning and trying new things.  This was really evident when I was tapped to play the Ringmaster in BARNUM! last spring.  I learned to spin a rope, crack a whip, juggle (not very well), and balance on a beam in two inch heels, and swing from the ceiling on a rope across the stage. 

Additional show pictures and family pictures can be found in the Family and Theater albums, and the James Street Players website.

Additional theater photos

Garden photos