Alvin H. Levin, a retired Pikesville photographer and teacher who enjoyed collecting vintage trains and toys, died Sunday from complications of Parkinson's disease at a hospice in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 86.
Mr. Levin was born in Baltimore and raised in Hollins Street, where his grandmother was a neighbor of newspaperman and author H.L. Mencken.
After graduating from City College, Mr. Levin earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 from what was then Western Maryland College and a master's degree in education in 1951 from Arizona State University.
Mr. Levin began his teaching career at Garrison Junior High School and later at Polytechnic Institute before moving in 1946 to Phoenix, Ariz.
From 1946 to 1952, he taught English and journalism at Glendale (Ariz.) Union High School, while also contributing articles and photography to the Arizona Republic newspaper.
"He was the best in the world, and I never let go of him after I graduated in 1952," said Eva M. Magnus, a retired American Airlines stewardess, who lives in Seal Beach, Calif.
"He directed and mentored so many lives during his mere six years at Glendale Union High School," said Mrs. Magnus, who writes and edits a newsletter for her high school class.
"George Ridge went on to become dean of the journalism school at the University of Arizona, and Jerry Jacka, and his wife, Lois, became an award-winning photographer and writer team, whose work was published for years in Arizona Highways."
Mrs. Magnus had kept in touch with Mr. Levin for the past 57 years.
"We loved and respected him so much that we anointed him, 'Sir' Levin. He grinned and liked it," she said.
Dr. Ridge credits his professional success to Mr. Levin's journalism class.
"If I hadn't taken those classes back in high school, I don't think I would have been considered for the copy boy job on the Arizona Republic in 1952. Six months later, they made me a cub reporter," Dr. Ridge said yesterday. He is retired from the University of Arizona and works as a newspaper consultant.
"He started me on my career in journalism, and I never left. He was a great and an inspirational teacher," he said.
In 2004, Mr. Levin was inducted into the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association's Distinguished Adviser Hall of Fame as "a true Arizona pioneer in the field of teaching journalism."
Mr. Levin returned to Baltimore in 1952 and for the next three decades worked as a wedding and portrait photographer until retiring in 1982.
