Most students recognize Dr. Romick from their English 11 CP class, film studies, Park Players, or Students of the Kingdom. Dr. Romick has taught at Park for 10 years, but has worked for 20 years total as a teacher. At first glance, you might think this is the only career he has pursued, but he worked in many different careers.
A huge retail company based out of St. Louis. This company moved him from St. Clairsville to Cleveland eventually to St. Louis. Eventually, he was recruited to work for Bath and Body Works in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, which he did so for a year and a half. Dr. Romick finally started chasing after his teaching career. He moved to a small town outside of St. Louis called Herman. Dr. Romick managed a restaurant bar while taking classes to achieve his teaching certification. He got hired in his last semester to teach in the following August.
“Knowing what I wanted, and really having already been successful in several different fields, I had that determination where I was just like when I first started out as a freshman at Bethany College, fresh out of high school, I wanted to be a professional actor, and I was absolutely bound and determined to do that, and life happens, you know what I mean. So all kinds of crazy things happen, but I don’t have any regrets. I have had a wonderful life so far, and I’m still really enjoying what I’m doing,” said Dr. Romick.
Dr. Romick was very successful with the two companies he worked with, but eventually found his way to his roots. He proposed the idea of teaching to his wife while he was a business executive in St. Louis. Despite this process being delayed, it still all worked out.
“My mom was a teacher. I have teachers all the way back in my lineage, grandparents and great-grandparents, and everything. My little sister is a teacher. It’s just something that’s always fascinating, I’ve always been inspired. I think all of us have had at least one, two, or three really good teachers that were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this person helped change my life’. I had those teachers, and so it’s something that I always wanted to do,” said Dr. Romick.
Dr. Romick has always had a town that he referred to as home even though he did not always live there, actually, he wasn’t even born there. He was born in Pittsburgh, eventually moving to New Jersey at a month old until he turned 14, and then he moved to Wheeling. Wheeling has always held a special place in Dr. Romick’s heart. Traveling and moving to plenty of different areas, he never thought he’d end back ‘home’.
“I feel like I spent a lot of my foundational years, my formative years in Wheeling. It’s where I met my wife, it’s where I graduated from High School, and it’s where I fell in love with theater. I started college, I started my family, and my wife was born and raised here. We always, even when we lived in Columbus, we lived in Cleveland, we lived in St Louis, we lived in Herman, Missouri, we lived in Reynolds, all those places, every time we talked about home, we didn’t have to say we don’t mean ‘home, home’. We knew we were talking about Wheeling and our parents still lived here,” said Dr. Romick.
Dr. Romick finds comfort in his faith. It gives him strength and confidence.
“I feel like if I didn’t have my faith, I probably, when my wife got cancer and passed, would be curled up in a fetal position somewhere, because I don’t know how without my faith in God, I could have made it through some of the trials and tribulations that I’ve had to face, and I’m not saying that not everyone does, because everyone does. I’ve had my share and I don’t see how I could have made it if I didn’t trust in and believe in God,” said Dr. Romick.
Dr. Romick is one of the most outgoing, positive, resilient, and bubbly teachers at Park. Dr. Romick is always seen with a smile on his face despite what kind of day he is having. Here is the advice he gives to people going through something.
“Regardless of what you’re going through, and trust me, I have been through the death of a wife, the death of a son, the death of a dad, and it doesn’t go away, but it gets better and it gets easier, and everything that you’re going through eventually will pass. I used to tell my daughter when she was just starting college and then starting her first job, and everything, I’d be like, you can do anything for 30 days, you can do anything for two weeks, it will get better. There’s always going to be that next day,” said Dr. Romick.
In his free time, Dr. Romick enjoys scenic rides on his motorcycle.
“It is my therapy. I have just a ridiculous number of playlists on my phone, and then I just put my headphones on underneath my helmet and then ride my motorcycle. It is so much fun, and it’s therapeutic, and it’s just, I love it. I’m in a zone,” said Dr. Romick
