Jack Twyman, longtime Bay Shore coach and teacher, dies at 85

Jack Twyman commanded respect, and students loved him for it.

The longtime North Babylon resident spent more than 30 years in the Bay Shore school district and wore many hats over this time – coach, teacher, guidance counselor. Through all of them, he was instrumental in shaping the lives and paths of countless students.

“I was in sixth grade when my father passed away,” said former student Keith Belfield, 62, of North Carolina. “Jack just stepped up. He was always a part of my life. Not just me, it was a lot of kids. He helped out. He was always buying somebody lunch, always doing something for people. ... He touched a lot of people’s lives. He was like my father.”

Twyman, a New Jersey native who grew to love Long Island, died Oct. 4 at his home in North Babylon, where he lived for over 50 years, his family said. He was 85.

Twyman was the freshman football coach at Bay Shore Middle School from 1967-76, amassing a 47-11-2 record. He also served as an assistant on both the Bay Shore High School junior varsity and varsity teams.  All told, teams with Twyman on the coaching staff had a 64-24-2 record. 

“He was the best coach I ever had,” said Lou Romanzi, 67, of Brightwaters, who played at Boston College from 1973-74.

Twyman, who served in the Army from 1960-62, including a tour in Korea, began his career as a physical education teacher at Brook Avenue Elementary School in Bay Shore in 1962. He followed many of his students to Bay Shore Middle School and High School, where he was a dean and a guidance counselor. He retired in 1995.

As Twyman watched his students age, he took a particular interest in their well-being. When Belfield considered dropping out, his mother knew exactly whom to call.

“He and the principal came to the house,” Belfield said. “They came up to my room. We talked for a little while, they came downstairs and they took me back to school. I didn’t quit.”

Twyman’s respect for education came from his father, Robert Lewis Twyman, who would constantly preach its virtues. Hardly a meal went by when this point wasn’t hammered home, and Jack Twyman never forgot it.

“My brother ran into so many kids who felt that education wasn’t the answer,” said sister Nancy Twyman Henry, 82, of New Jersey. “Back in his time, kids thought selling drugs and getting rich quick was the way of life. My brother would take time with people like that and teach them a better way.”

Jack Twyman was legendarily generous, making sure his students and their families never went without life’s essentials.

“Parents from the neighborhood would call, and they didn’t have heat,” Belfield said. “They didn’t have the money to get oil and he would have me take money to those people, so they could have heat. He bought kids school clothes. In my senior year, he rented a car for me to go to the prom.”

Twyman also co-owned Van Winkles Pub on Sunrise Highway and Fifth Avenue in Bay Shore during the 1980s, Belfield said.

Twyman’s care for his students didn’t stop on graduation day. While playing basketball at St. John’s University for iconic coach Lou Carnesecca, Gordon Thomas was summoned into the coach's office. Thomas was frequently sleeping through his early class. When Thomas arrived in the coach’s office, he was excited to see Twyman but unaware why he had been brought in.

“I walked into Coach Carnesecca’s office and the entire coaching staff is in the office, including my economics teacher. I walk in, [Twyman] gets up, and I’m walking in for a hug,” said Thomas, 65, of Bay Shore. “But, I walked into a punch into the chest. Then he said, ‘Make sure you get to your first period class.’ ... Needless to say, I made that class for the rest of the semester.”

Born Feb. 27, 1937, at Somerset Hospital in New Jersey, Jack Twyman grew up in nearby South Bound Brook. He attended Bound Brook High School, where he lettered and won all-district honors in football, wrestling and track. Upon graduation in 1955, he went to Ithaca College, where he lettered in football and track.

In retirement, Twyman traveled the country, indulging in one of his great passions, golf. But his other passion, caring for his students, never left him. When Thomas coached the Amityville High School boys basketball team to a state championship in 2018, Twyman was there for every game until the upstate portion of the tournament.

“When I heard that he died, it was like a piece of my heart was taken out of my chest,” Thomas said. “What a great man.”

In addition to his sister, Jack Twyman is survived by daughter Michelle Ann Twyman of North Babylon and nephews Robert Henry of Maryland and Lionel Henry of New Jersey. He was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Anna Whitfield-Twyman. Jack Twyman is buried at Pinelawn Memorial Park and Arboretum in Farmingdale, his sister said.

With Andy Slawson