By Christopher Haraden

In the days since the death of longtime teacher and coach Joseph F. Menice, hundreds of former students, colleagues, friends, and family members have shared memories of his positive impact on the town and on generations of Hullonians.

Mr. Menice, who was 96 when he died on Saturday, January 6, 2024, taught in the Hull Public Schools for 40 years and worked in the town’s recreation department for decades. He is fondly remembered as a mentor and role model for local kids.

“He was just ultimate in humility, and in leaving a place better than you found it,” said Jim Quatromoni, a Hull High graduate who, like Mr. Menice, was a Pirates basketball coach and the school’s athletic director. “His influence on the number of kids at Hull High School is amazing to think about.”

“It is hard to imagine anyone who had a greater positive and meaningful impact on the lives of Hull youth and, in fact, the entire Hull community,” said Stu Turgel, a student of Mr. Menice’s in the 1960s. “Joe was a bigger-than-life man who taught and led, not just within the school’s walls and on its sports fields, but on behalf of and for the benefit of every household and family in the town.”

School committee Chair David Twombly acknowledged Mr. Menice at the opening of Monday night’s meeting and led a moment of silence in tribute.

“He was an all-around great representative of the town of Hull that all students should strive to emulate. He had a very caring demeanor, and he’ll be missed by many residents and Hull High alumni,” said Twombly, a 1979 graduate. “He made a positive impact on the lives of many students.”

Mr. Menice’s children said this week that they were not fully aware of his far-reaching influence while they were young.

“I did not know that we were ‘sharing’ Dad with other kids until later in life,” said his daughter, Vickie Desharnais. “Growing up, he was just our Dad. I had no idea the impact he had on others until he would tell his stories of his years coaching and teaching.”

“The way that he conducted himself made you want to know more,” said Quatromoni, who now is Hingham’s athletic director. “I think about him taking a very measured, thoughtful approach to the job. During my time in Hull, I felt a sense of pride to hold the basketball coach and AD positions that he held, and to live up to the standards that he set.”

Mr. Menice played basketball and baseball at Hingham High School and was treasurer of his class when he graduated in 1945. Only a few months later, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent overseas to serve as a guard during the trials of Nazi war criminals in the aftermath of World War II. As much as Mr. Menice would later impact the lives of young people, he noted that being present during one of the most somber and significant chapters of world history made an impression on him as an 18-year-old.

“Being at the Nuremberg Trials had a profound effect on my life,” he said in a 1994 interview upon his retirement from teaching. “I had to escort the prisoners, and I was on hand during the testimony. The evidence was overwhelming. When they showed the movies of the atrocities, many of the accused looked away from the movie screen. The proceedings left an impression on everyone who was there.”

Mr. Menice’s role at the trials was captured on an educational filmstrip that was used for many years in Hull’s history classes. His son Peter said that for years, teachers would pause the lesson to point out Mr. Menice on the screen.

“It happened so much that by the time my year and turn came to see it, he was like a ghost!” he said. “It paused on this spot so many times, the bulb had burned his image.”

After his discharge from the Army, Mr. Menice attended Boston University and earned a teaching degree. In 1954, shortly after their marriage, Mr. Menice and his wife, Doris, settled in Hull, where Mrs. Menice’s family, the Kinnears, already were well established. Their home on Sunset Point became the focal point for their family, which eventually grew to include 10 children and 22 grandchildren. Mrs. Menice worked as a telephone operator at the local exchange building (now the Knights of Columbus Hall), and Mr. Menice was appointed sixth grade and physical education teacher at the Memorial School. For many years, he was the director of the school’s evening recreation program, an activity Hull kids simply called “Night Gym.”

Many describe Mr. Menice as a giant of a man or as larger than life, but not in the boisterous or chatty way that those terms typically imply. Instead, he carried himself with a calmness and moderation that instantly made others feel at ease.

“He created a culture and environment of inclusion, fairness, decency, class, and dignity long before it was fashionable,” said Turgel, who graduated in 1966 and now lives in Arizona. “I’m 75 years old, and yet I remember him as my teacher and coach as vividly as though it was yesterday. Joe was humble and modest, and I dare say he would be embarrassed by all of the well-deserved accolades that have and will be written and spoken about him.”

Retired science teacher Joseph Doniger, who was a student of Mr. Menice’s at Hull High and later became a teaching colleague, credited him with treating all students alike.

“He was a coach and did a lot with athletes, but he was a wonderful role model as a teacher,” said Doniger, who graduated from Hull High in 1967 and directed the school’s theater program while a faculty member. “When you were in Joe’s gym class, it didn’t matter what kind of athlete you were. You were treated well and you felt safe. All students mattered to him.”

Teaching in the town where he raised his family meant that his children often found themselves with a familiar name on their academic schedules.

“Having him for gym class, when he was doing attendance, he never said my name,” his daughter, Theresa Ryan, recalled this week. “When I finally asked him why, he just said, ‘I know you are here.’ Like we would ever skip his class.”

In his classes – and as a parent – Mr. Menice was supportive and encouraging.

“He was always there for people,” said Peter, the Times’ editorial cartoonist for more than three decades. “[Fellow teacher] John Anderson used to say, if there was a kid who wanted to climb the ropes and was too scared or weak, Joe would stay with him and encourage him until he did it. That’s a big takeaway for me. It’s difficult until it’s easy. You just don’t know when that moment is. Keep going.”

“What I remember most about my Dad is that it’s not one special moment, but many moments,” said his daughter, Mary Wilson. “Those moments when you were alone with him, those one-on-one moments where, out of the blue, he would give you an encouraging word for only you to hear – ‘I am proud of you’ or ‘You’re doing a great job.’ In these  moments, I felt special and loved. He was a beautiful soul and a gift.”

Mr. Menice was hired as the first basketball coach after Hull High School opened in 1957. Although he valued competition and led his teams to tournaments, he wasn’t in the game only to win.

“I told them if they were interested in a coach that would win games alone, I wouldn’t be the person for them,” he said in 1994 when he recalled his initial interview with the school committee. “I told them if they were interested in a coach that would teach their players the game of basketball and good sportsmanship, I was their person. I wasn’t overly concerned with wins and losses.”

Frank Infusino, a 1960 graduate who played football and basketball at Hull High, echoed the sentiments of many athletes who credited Mr. Menice as a quiet inspiration who knew how to get the best out of his players. Infusino, a retired teacher and school superintendent who now lives in California, recalled his classmates inviting Mr. and Mrs. Menice to a reunion as their guests of honor. In a poem he wrote for the occasion, “No Ordinary Joe,” Infusino noted that Mr. Menice “spoke softly, carried no big stick; his compassion and commitment not a trick; from Little League, to Night Gym, to high school coach; always there, no problem too difficult to broach; his legend over the years would only grow; to us, No Ordinary Joe.”

Mr. Menice’s many years in the school district meant that he crossed paths with names long memorialized with plaques on the walls. He taught for a time in the same building as Lillian M. Jacobs, who later would have an elementary school named in her honor, and John W. Finlayson, Jr., the shop teacher to whom the high school field was dedicated in 1962. In 1969, Mr. Menice was appointed athletic director, replacing the retiring Joseph Berman, for whom Hull High’s gymnasium is named. Doniger, who taught in Hull for more than 30 years, is the namesake of the school’s auditorium.

In 1990, the town named the baseball field on the grounds of the Hall Estate, just up Nantasket Avenue from the Hingham line, “Joe Menice Ball Field” to recognize Mr. Menice’s contributions to Hull’s recreation programs. Peter Menice said that while his father was grateful for the honor, privately he worried that it unfairly put the spotlight on him instead of the kids using the field.

Desharnais, his daughter, said that although humble, Mr. Menice had a long memory and appreciated the support he received from the community.

“Please know that Dad remembered everyone who touched his life. His memory was phenomenal,” she said. “He could recall stories from all times, and would remember the names of everyone and how he was associated with them. Know that you were remembered by him.”

In 2009, Mr. Menice was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame of both Hingham and Hull high schools, a unique and fitting achievement. In 2019, he served as the grand marshal of Hull’s 375th anniversary parade, riding down Nantasket Avenue in a convertible with General Richard “Butch” Neal, a former student who often visited with his former teacher when he returned to Hull.

In his own quiet way, Mr. Menice commanded respect long after his students had left his supervision. One former student recalled how, many years after graduating from Hull High, he was standing on the Kenberma sidewalk, enjoying an afternoon smoking break. When he saw his former teacher approaching, he quickly flicked the cigarette onto the pavement and covered it with his foot.

“I was a grown adult, but I still couldn’t let Mr. Menice see me smoking,” he recalled. Others remembered being admonished for showing poor sportsmanship or for using foul language in frustration during games; neither were tolerated when Mr. Menice was in charge.

Retired elementary school teacher Susan Perry worked with Mr. Menice as a summer instructor at the L Street playground. She recalled that one of her tasks was to submit a weekly account of her group’s activities – “writing about who made potholders, gimp, and won at checkers.” Mr. Menice would then submit these to the Times for publication, so that parents would know what their children were doing and so that the kids could see their names in print.

“He was truly a kind, quiet gentleman who would hate all the accolades,” Perry said.

Although he worked year-round, his children remembered that Mr. Menice made sure he was present for them.

“We spent a lot of time down the beach in the summers, and Dad had to work at Park and Rec, but he would always find the time to stop by the beach and wave to us as we were playing,” said his son Jeff. “I also remember always hearing the Red Sox games on the radio when he would do things around the house or wash the car.”

In addition to his involvement with the recreation program, Mr. Menice served on the town’s youth commission and emergency preparedness committee, and took on numerous other volunteer positions and advisory roles. One of the most unusual was in 1988, when he agreed to participate in the “Meadow Muffin Megabucks” fundraiser to help save the school’s athletic program from budget cuts. Along with two other “judges,” Mr. Menice donned a cowboy hat and spent an afternoon following a cow around the football field, which had been divided into squares that were numbered and sold. A participant “won” if the cow’s droppings landed in their square; proceeds were split between the ticket holder and the Boosters Club. The event raised $20,000 in its first year and was copied by other towns across the South Shore.

Not all requests were as unique as that one, but Mr. Menice never hesitated to offer his assistance when asked.

“Every time I approached Joe with an idea to expand opportunities for students, he graciously listened and offered his support,” current Superintendent of Schools Judith Kuehn said this week. “Witnessing Joe’s generous and kind qualities demonstrated by his grandchildren has been a true privilege.”

After teaching for 40 years, Mr. Menice finally decided to retire from the school department in 1994.

“I forget who it was, but somebody once told me that if you work with three generations of the same family, it is time to call it quits,” he told The Boston Globe in 1994. “I have youngsters in the recreation program and I can remember coaching their grandfathers and fathers, so I guess it is my time to leave.”

Although retired, Mr. Menice remained tireless. He stayed active with the recreation department for many years, organizing and officiating games of all kinds for all age groups, until the pandemic prompted him to step back. He was a model train enthusiast and enjoyed spending time with his large family, teaching his own kids winning strategies in backyard games like run the bases, croquet, and Frisbee golf.

Visiting hours for Mr. Menice will be held on Monday at St. Ann’s Church, followed by a funeral there on Tuesday morning. Full details can be found in the print edition or by clicking here. Donations in his memory may be made to the Joe Menice Scholarship at Hull High School.

“I really feel that it is a sad end to an era,” said Quatromoni, summing up the feelings of many who appreciated Mr. Menice’s influence. “I can’t be thankful enough to have crossed paths with him in my particular journey. You’re a better person for having had Mr. Menice in your life.”

Like what you’re reading? Stay informed with a Hull Times subscription by clicking here.

Do you have a memory of Mr. Menice? Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.