Presto! The Teacher Who Became a Magician

As soon as Gerry Ranieri was old enough to read, he was drawn to books about magic. Dreams of being a magician swirled in his head.

 Some would say he left his dreams behind to serve as a teacher and social studies supervisor for 44 years in New Jersey schools.

But that’s not how Ranieri sees it: “I always had to perform magic,” he says.“[When you teach] you have to be a magician almost every day.” If anything, his experience as an educator only fueled his passion. 

Ranieri delved deeper into his magical world early in his retirement. He often stopped in his friend’s magic store with tons of questions.

After being thrown out of the store three times because of his pestering, Ranieri was finally allowed to learn the secrets of the trade. Since then, he’s honed his skills as an amateur magician and taken his act on the local circuit, performing at elementary schools, day care centers, and senior citizens’ homes.

He even got his granddaughters involved in the act. “When they were younger, they would help me do levitations and come out of mystery boxes.”

Disappearing rabbits, interactive stories, and card tricks are some of the ways Ranieri brings a little magic to everyone in his audience. Ranieri fondly remembers one show where he used a puppet duck to pick a pre-selected card.

One little boy yelled, “It’s the policeman card!” The young girl sitting in front of him turned around, and putting her finger to her pursed lips, said “Shish, the duck will hear you.” “After that, I knew I had made it,” Ranieri laughs.

He believes the greatest reward comes from seeing the brightened eyes of the children he reaches. “They’re just a delight,” he says. “We have fun together.”

—Nina Sears

Playing from the Heart

Once she retired from teaching, Diane Dunn set out to find new challenges. She started out by running two full marathons—yes, the full 26.2 miles—in her home state of Michigan. But she still had a desire to dive into something new.

For Dunn, that “something new” turned out to be something old. She decided to pick up her Celtic harp, years after she had set aside a professional career as a harpist to get her education degree.

Dunn was so focused on teaching during her career of more than 30 years as a middle school science and physical education teacher, she was left with no time to share her talent. “My students never even knew I played the harp,” she says.

She started her own business, Heart & Harp, and plays background music for special occasions—including wedding receptions, corporate dinner parties, anniversaries, and retirements.

On a February morning in 2005, Dunn “woke up with an idea in [her] head.” That idea became her first children’s book, The Adventures of a Harp Mouse, which she wrote, published, and distributed herself through her Web site (heartandharp.net).

“I thought, ‘If I can sell science to eighth graders with good success, I know I can sell books to avid readers,’” she says.

Now when Dunn is in the classroom, she teachers students how the harp works; reads and presents a copy of her newest book, The Harp Mouse Chooses Her Home: The Adventure Begins; and describes the path her book took from handwritten story to published hardcover. “I feel I was given a gift of inspiration,” she says.

—Erica Addison