Bernice Lewiton; taught children with disabilities

Bernice Lewiton and her grandson Dan Jackson. (Tom Herde/Globe Staff/File 1998)

Bernice (Goldman) Lewiton was 8 when she was stricken with polio in 1933. A doctor predicted she would never walk again.

"Her mother threw the doctor out of the house and she was in bed for most of the year while her mother provided intense physical therapy," said her daughter Barbara, of Waltham. "Mother made a complete recovery."

In later life, Mrs. Lewiton would be just as tenacious as her mother when she taught in the Watertown schools from 1970 to 1989, helping children with learning disabilities and dyslexia to reach their full potential.

Mrs. Lewiton died Feb. 15 at her Waltham home of a neurological disorder. She was 82 and for nearly half a century was married to Judge Jacob Lewiton, former chief justice of the Boston Municipal Court. The couple lived in Belmont for many years.

Although Mrs. Lewiton was the first girl in her family to attend both high school and college, her daughter said, she waited until after she raised three children to study at Massachusetts General Hospital to prepare to teach children with learning disabilities.

From 1968 to 1970, she studied and became certified in the Orton-Gillingham method, a multisensory approach to teaching youngsters to overcome learning barriers.

Mrs. Lewiton used this knowledge for 17 years in the Watertown school system, first at the former Coolidge School and then at the Lowell School before retiring in 1989.

Martha Jacoby of Belmont, a teaching partner of Mrs. Lewiton's, said Watertown instituted its program one year before the state passed its special-education law, known as Chapter 766, in 1976. The federal law was enacted two years later.

"Bernice was great," said Louise Oviatt, the former Coolidge school psychologist. "She was able to work with all of these kids and never refused to help one. The kids loved her."

Mrs. Lewiton was quick to evaluate their issues and their strengths, Oviatt said. "Did a child have difficulty listening? Bernice would have his hearing checked. She would work with the kids to give them self-confidence. If one of them needed some special material thing, she would go out of her way to get it," she said.

Jacoby said that when Watertown began providing special attention to children with reading disabilities, "Bernice and I took it on as a challenge. We became a team."

Mrs. Lewiton referred to herself as "a Jewish mother," Jacoby said. "She demanded their best but still loved them when they couldn't excel."

What made Mrs. Lewiton special, Jacoby said, was her sense of humor.

"When you deal with problem children you have to have a sense of humor and Bernice had it," she said. "Here we were in a school where it was rare to have anybody who was Jewish, and Bernice gave them the old Jewish mother routine . . . you kind of love them to death and take no nonsense."

Years after students left school, she said, they would write the two teachers to thank them for helping turn their lives around.

Mrs. Lewiton was born in Boston to Samuel and Edith (Feister) Goldman and lived in Roxbury until the family moved to Brighton in 1945.

She graduated from Roxbury Memorial High School and from Bates College with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1947.

She was working as personnel director at Allerton Hospital in Brookline when she was introduced to Jacob Lewiton.

They were married in 1951 after "a whirlwind courtship," their daughter said. "It was a storybook romance that lasted 48 years."

Mrs. Lewiton received a master's in special education from Lesley College in 1979.

Her husband died in 2000.

After retiring from the Waltham schools, Mrs. Lewiton could not stay away from school. She volunteered for 12 years at the Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School in Arlington, where a grandchild attended, helping to improve students' reading.

"Bernice's presence was always a treat for both the children and me as she brought compassion, enthusiasm, and warmth every time she entered the school," said Lauren Jastremski of Marblehead, who teaches first grade there.

"The children and I, as well as the rest of the staff, all loved her. She had a natural instinct when it came to discerning the type of help or guidance an individual student needed. We treasured her insights," Jastremski said.

She recalled the afternoon teas Mrs. Lewiton would host at her Waltham home, "where we would sit and chat about a variety of subjects, usually with a gentle injection of politics. Everyone always remarked about what an amazing woman and gracious hostess she was."

Mrs. Lewiton's legacy to her children and grandchildren was one of loving thy neighbor.

"Grandmother believed everyone deserved a second chance or even a third chance, and believed there were no bad people - just people who made some bad decisions," her oldest grandchild, Ariel of Chicago, said in her eulogy.

She kept and loved her friends as well, her daughter said, having 80 of her contemporaries at her 80th birthday party. And, she was a chocoholic.

"I believe Grandma was greatly satisfied that she spent her last days as she spent her best days, immersed in the three vital elements of her life: love, laughter, and chocolate in abundance," Ariel said.

In addition to her daughter, she leaves another daughter, Cynthia Jackson of Needham; a son, Marvin of Arlington; and five grandchildren.

Services have been held.