Nicholas J. Steenstra

When Parsippany only had 1 Junior High School, I was an "OUTSIDER" from the "South of Rt. 46" side! Although always in scrapes he encouraged me to be a nominee for the 1964 American History Award,which I WON! Mr. Kidd ,Mr. Fox, and Mr. Sommer believed in me also! A Central Blue Devil for Life!

Nick brought a whole new dimension to public education. He deeply believed in education but mores believed in keeping his staff highly motivated by fostering morale via gags and after hours field trips. He will long be remembered as a rare principal and fun loving guy. Still hard to comprehend he, as well as others who served with him have departed. Somewhere in the great beyond there is a field trip taking place at this moment!

Mr.Steenstra was our teacher in 1957-58 and of all our teachers my memories of him are the fondest, condolences to his family from the PHS class of 1962.

he was a wonderful teacher,remember him well, had him for middle school teacher in 1957 & 58

It is with sadness that I learned of the passing of Nick Steenstra, my first principal at Central Jr. High in 1974. He was eloquent with words, had a wonderful sense of humor, and knew all of the good restaurants that he often frequented. He was unique. Nick and Central will always be intertwined.

Dear Mrs. Steenstra and family:

It is with great sadness I heard of Nick's passing. He was a most remarkable human being. He gave many of us our start professionally and in life itself as well. He will always be remembered for the exciting, often zany faculty days together at Central JHS. Life with Nick during those hectic, growth and often contentious years will never be duplicated.They were marvelous times for all of us.

Please accept my sympathies and condolences. May the...

Mr. Steenstra was a wonderful Principal at Central back in the day. I still have a thank you note he sent to me for officiating the P.T.A. Faculty Fundraising Basketball Game back in 1970. My condolences to his family.

I got to know Nick after I was out of high school through Abe Elias and John Melchoir. I have a bunch of warm memoriesI had the task of writing the blurbs for the local cable channel's educational offerings and Nick would call up Melchoir to laugh at my choice of adjectives. We're talking 1977-1979. It was hard work to find descriptives to make scholastic baseball games sound exciting month after month, frankly, to name just one of the onerous sports I wrote of. Nick would call each month to...

I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Seenstra, but heard wonderful things about his compassion, keen sense of humor, great intelligence and ready smile from his daughter, my friend. May his family find peace in knowing that love is forever.