Roger Cersine, a popular sociology and Advanced Placement history teacher at Washburn High School in Minneapolis for several decades, challenged his students to think outside of the box.
During a class in the late 1960s, he orchestrated a play-acted violent altercation with a student, which was witnessed by other students who believed it was real. Immediately afterward, he had students write down everything they saw. Cersine used it as demonstration of why eyewitness testimony is often unreliable.
Nearly two dozen of his former students left messages of gratitude and praise on his online obituary following his death from renal failure Dec. 7. He was described as the kind of teacher you never forget, and who inspired some to become educators themselves.
Cersine, who also was elected to the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame as a swimming and diving official, died at Sunrise of Edina senior living facility. He was 86.
"He had a great sense of humor that he used in the classroom," said his wife of 62 years, Barbara.
Cersine was born in Ely, Minn., in 1935 and worked in the iron ore mines and for the forest service. His father told him to "not get used to the good paychecks because you are going to college," his wife said.
After receiving bachelor's and master's degrees, he taught at several schools in north Minneapolis. He was a Civil War buff, and he knew he wanted to teach history. He eventually landed at Washburn, where he taught until 1989.
For over half a century, Cersine was a swimming and diving official at the high school and college levels. He served as the Minnesota State High School League Swimming & Diving rules interpreter for 35 years and helped organize the state's Swimming Officials Association in 1972.
