'An epic person': Bernard Barcio, the Latin teacher known for his catapult contest, dies

To generations of Indianapolis students, Bernard Barcio's name was synonymous with wildly creative lessons on antiquity. He helped them wrangle catapults for a national contest and build chariots as he taught the roots of Western civilization. For his efforts, he won Indiana Teacher of the Year in 1986.

Closer to the Latin and classics teacher's Broad Ripple home, friends and neighbors knew him for his continuous gestures of generosity, like carrying treats in his coat pockets to feed neighborhood dogs and leaving books inside a little free library box. He died Feb. 20 at age 84.

"He was kind of an epic person who touched a lot of lives," his son Phillip Barcio said.

Bernard Francis Barcio was born to Theodore and Stella (Nudi) Barcio on Oct. 10, 1938, in Cudahy, Wisconsin. His parents' families immigrated from the Calabria region of southern Italy, and his mother was a homemaker while his dad was a supervisor on the railroad.

His Catholic upbringing influenced Barcio's decision to attend Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he earned his bachelor's degree and became fluent in Latin. He attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to study classical languages and antiquity and completed post-graduate work with Tufts University in Naples, Italy. He later received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Butler University.

"He settled on a secular life but had a lot of passion for Latin," Phillip Barcio said. "He got really fascinated by the ruins of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius and the long history of the Italian people."

Indiana legends lost:Doyel: David Benner, a legend at IndyStar and then the Pacers, dies

A teacher Indianapolis remembers well

Bernard Barcio arrived in Indianapolis in 1965 thanks to a job posting he saw seeking a Latin teacher for Indianapolis' Park School, which is now Park Tudor. Once on the faculty, he met and married Lillian Rose Barcio, the headmaster's secretary and mother of three daughters including Karen Pence, the wife of Mike Pence, the former vice president and governor.

At Park School — and throughout his teaching career at Eastwood Middle School, North Central and Carmel High Schools, Butler University and IUPUI — Barcio became known for enlivening his lesson plans.

“If you study Spanish, you can go to Mexico or Spain and you can see the context in which the language is being used," Barcio told IndyStar in 2019. "For ancient Latin, the context doesn’t exist anymore and for an effective Latin teacher, you’ve got to help recreate the context in which it was used."

To accomplish that, he founded the National Catapult Contest, for which students built machines that launched rocks or spears using materials that would have been available to ancient Romans. The competition drew attention from national media and even the U.S. Pentagon, who worked with the kids to learn more about the contraptions that the Viet Cong used to take down U.S. helicopters, Barcio told IndyStar in 2019.

Remembering:Theresa Murray spent decades saving lives. Her tragic death could save more, friends hope

"He just made everything come alive rather than having it be in a book," his daughter Cyndi Barcio said. "Now you're experiencing it. You know what (ancient Romans) went through."

Bernard Barcio would dress up as people from ancient history, including the Roman soldier Fabius Loreius Tiburtinus, and not leave out the true but uncomfortable details of raids and misogyny.

Eventually, the teacher united these efforts under the nonprofit Pompeiiana, which produced a newsletter from 1974 to 2003 that was distributed to Latin classes worldwide, Phillip Barcio said.

The newsletter came together inside the family's Broad Ripple home. The kids' father recorded them reciting Latin, recruited them to help with Roman-style banquets to teach his students and handed his kids a quarter every time they made it through the Greek alphabet.

Generous with books and heirloom tomatoes

Barcio's children grew up with plenty of vestiges of their father's Italian American upbringing. He fermented homegrown Concord grapes in jars in a bedroom closet to make wine and grew tomatoes from seeds the family had brought over from Italy.

"In addition to putting books in the free library box, he was putting packets of heirloom tomatoes in there," Phillip Barcio said.

Bernard Barcio spent about 12 years figuring out ancestral recipes after the death of his mother, who had a penchant for withholding an ingredient or so from the written versions to preserve her magic touch. His daughter Cyndi later published them for the family.

Jodessa Cooper:Loving caretaker, 'darn good' cook, lifetime Colts fan — dies in shooting

He sang in Christ the King Catholic Church's Resurrection Choir and saw that thousands of his handcrafted wooden crosses went to those without homes, Phillip said. The Salvation Army was among the recipients of his rocking chairs and horses around Christmas time, and his wooden furniture found homes via Habitat for Humanity.

To honor Bernard Barcio's legacy, the family is fundraising through GoFundMe for a college scholarship for first-generation Americans. The family also is looking into assembling an archive of materials from Pompeiiana and Barcio's years teaching.

Barcio's parents; his wife, Lillian Rose Barcio; and his beloved cat Tulia preceded him in death. He is survived by his brother, Joseph Barcio; son Phillip (Audrey) Barcio; daughter Cyndi Barcio; and stepdaughters Marsha (Jim) Louzan, Karen (Mike) Pence, and Sheryl (Jeff) Donnella.

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Bernard Barcio, Latin teacher known for his catapult contest, dies