About the Author: Mary Bruno Friedman
Mary Bruno Friedman began her teaching career as a special educator with a degree in Emotional Disturbance and Neurological Impairment at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in Manhattan. Her unique experiences while teaching there began her life-long desire to advocate for the underdog and cheer for imperfect characters that manage to get it right anyway.
She suspended her teaching career briefly to raise her family. Upon her return to education, she became a departmental teacher at Woodland Middle School in East Meadow, NY, which is where she met and befriended Mr. Danyk Szafranski. Further, earning certification as a Wilson Language Systems teacher, she spent many years teaching dyslexic students to master reading. As well, spanning over her thirty-year teaching career, her other positions included teaching special elementary students and High School English.
In 1996, Of HEROIC PROPORTION began to take form as the narrative non-fiction account of Mr. Szafranski’s life. (Mr. Szafranski and Ms. Friedman's photo taken together is over on the left). Once told to her through Danyk’s tears and written though her heart’s eye, it became her passion to share Danyk's up-lifting and inspiring story so that others might also see that true heroes really do walk among us.
She also utilized her love of writing, drama and storytelling to motivate young people toward self-expression, publication and a life of learning with purpose for nearly ten years by writing and producing her own plays for school-wide audiences and guiding her students to write and produce their own, as well.
In January 2007, her dedication was recognized by New York State District Kiwanis, and an EVERYDAY HERO Award was presented to her by the students of Woodland Middle School’s Builders Club.
In 2018, she retired from the East Meadow Union Free School District and enjoyed time as a docent at Old Bethpage Village Restoration in Bethpage, NY. She presently resides in Melville, New York with her husband, Steve. Their greatest joy is spending time with their expanding family, especially their children, Adam and Lisa, their significant others, Deb and Jonathan and their five grandchildren (Evie, Maddie, Brie, Lenny and Mariella).