Reporter's notebook: Thank you, Mark Rosche

Few educators make a long-lasting positive impact on one community as Mark Rosche did in Clyde. I and many others knew him as Mr. Rosche (pronounced row-shay), who sadly passed away July 9 after battling cancer. Originally from Massillon, he taught at the old McPherson Middle School, located at Vine and Spring streets near St. Mary's Catholic Church in Clyde, from 1983 to 2010. During the 2006-07 school year, he was my eighth-grade English language arts teacher. I'll never forget my first day in his class — he made small talk with my peers and soon spoke with me. In our first conversation, he asked me who I'm related to in Clyde, and told me which of my family members were his students years before. Essentially, Mr. Rosche made this introvert feel seen and welcome. As the school year went on, my reading and writing skills were sharpened as our class read books like "The Diary of Anne Frank" and wrote various essays. He, of course, didn't hesitate to correct our grammar, either. And I firmly believe Mr. Rosche was one of the first teachers to acknowledge the great potential my writing skills had. After graduating high school, I saw him in Clyde occasionally at, for instance, my sister's high school tennis matches. "Hi, all-star!" he called out to me before one of our chats. He frequently called his former students "all-stars" and loved to catch up with them. He wasn't a stranger to anyone. In 2016, shortly after I started working at the Register, the Clyde Enterprise closed after more than 100 years of printing Clyde news. That's when he stopped by the Register and, by coincidence, spoke with me at the front counter about freelancing for the paper. But Mr. Rosche decided to create his own news site, CGS News Flier, and covered Clyde athletic competitions and arts programs. He video-recorded several interviews with students and coaches, many of which are still on the page. He did all of this on top of the announcing duties he had since 1988 at Clyde football and basketball games, from which he was known as "the voice of the Fliers." This excerpt from his obituary says it all: "Mark viewed Clyde's youth as his own family. Whether it was a classroom, stage, field, mat or a court, Mark enjoyed having a hand in and watching Clyde's students excel in all of their endeavors." Thank you, Mr. Rosche, for serving the Clyde community as you did. A public memorial service is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Clyde High School's gym. — Caitlin Nearhood