Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Dear Family Laniak,
Mr. Laniak was my Woodworking teacher at Madison High School in the early 70’s. Your dad was my reason I choose Education to become a Woodworking teacher. His class was my favorite class. His Woodworking class was fun, exciting, and challenging. He taught us so much more than just working with wood. Each year Madison had an “Industrial Arts Fair” to highlight all the student work from all the different Industrial Arts classes. He had his wood shop transformed into a manufacturing operation where all of us worked at various stations to produce cutting boards which were handed out to everyone that stopped by. His cutting board manufacturing operation included materials from almost all Industrial Arts classes at the time. It was all assembled in his classroom. Mr. Laniak did amazing projects and activities in that classroom.
Mr. Laniak was a great man, top educator, and countless RCSD students benefited from having him as their teacher. When I retired from the classroom in 2012, I sent him a thank you note for the great career I had and it was all because of him.
May his memory be eternal.
Jim Vangellow
