Teacher, Coach At North Shore Catholic Schools Remembered

CHICAGO — A science teacher and baseball coach at Catholic schools on the North Shore was remembered this week following his death last weekend in a traffic crash in Indiana.

James "Jimmy" Ariel, 22, graduated Quincy University in December and was due to take part in the commencement ceremony this May, according to a statement from the school. He had majored in biology and focused on middle school and high school education at college, where he was a member of the men's track and cross country team.

In February, Ariel announced he had started working as a long term seventh grade substitute science teacher at Our Lady of Perpetual Help school in Glenview until the end of the year. He also began coaching baseball at Loyola Academy, where he coached the freshman baseball team and the program's catchers.

After commencement at Quincy, Ariel had been due to spend the summer as head travel baseball coach of the Illinois Indians. In a statement, the club said he had infectious positive energy and was passionate about impacting the lives of young people.

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice a gift," it quoted Ariel as saying, noting he had just begun what was expected to be a long and successful coaching and teaching career.

A graduate of Brother Rice High School, Ariel was a member of the Golden Apple Scholars class of 2015, a group of students who have chosen to dedicate themselves to a career educating children in schools of need.

Loyola's varsity baseball coach told Pioneer Press Ariel had planned on becoming a teacher and coach at Catholic schools for close to a decade. One of his sisters said he would regularly read two books at a time and constantly worked on self-improvement.

Ariel died around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday after his 2007 Chevrolet Malibu left the road and caught fire on the westbound Indiana Toll Road in Gary, according to a release from Indiana State Police.

A visitation is scheduled until 9 p.m. Thursday at Wolniak Funeral Home, 5700 S. Pulaski Road in Chicago. A funeral mass is set for Friday at 10 a.m. at Mary Mother of Mercy Church, 7114 S. Hamlin in Chicago.

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