At 93, George Schnell isn't just one of a few remaining members of the Greatest Generation. He's also the last living member of a group called the "Old Guard," seven World War II veterans who taught at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. Each spent his whole career there.

The cadre was a beloved fixture at the school through the '80s, when the members retired. The other remaining member, James "Jim" Keane, an English teacher from 1946 to 1986, recently died.

Keane was Schnell's best friend and "a hero, for many reasons," said Schnell, who taught Spanish and other languages at the Catholic, all-boys military academy until 1984 and later served as headmaster.

He recalls Keane as a "very, very outgoing" man with a passion for language, especially Shakespeare, which he read over and over while stationed in Iceland. For 27 years, he recorded books for the blind.

Keane taught the boys "to be good, responsible human beings, and … to get outside of themselves," Schnell said. While serious students learned to love literature under Keane's tutelage, others didn't appreciate him until later, Schnell noted.

"Well, you know, he taught English, and high school boys already speak English, so English was not their thing," Schnell laughed. "But he taught them other things."

An online memorial was filled with those life lessons. Students quoted Hamlet and remembered how he challenged them to learn new words.

One student recalled Keane's belief in "manners, propriety, behavior and all of the traits that belonged to well-bred gentlemen," while another praised his "sly sense of humor."

Before each military ball, Keane brought in a full place setting and showed students how to use silverware and behave at a formal dinner.

Schnell remains proud of St. Thomas and has fond memories of the Old Guard. He joked that he and Keane thought the school might collapse when they left, and were a bit disappointed when it didn't. "We stuck together until we started dying off, and now I'm alone and I don't like to be alone," Schnell said. "But I'm glad I'm still around."