Longtime North Star teacher Al Bock dies after battle with rare disorder

A longtime Lincoln Public Schools teacher died Tuesday after battling a rare neurodegenerative disorder. 

Al Bock worked for LPS for 32 years before retiring in December. 

Bock was diagnosed with Multiple Systems Atrophy – which has symptoms similar to Parkinson’s Disease – and said his health started declining last August. 

Bock joined Lincoln North Star when the school opened in 2003, and served as Department Chair for Social Studies for part of his tenure at the school. 

He was also the ‘Voice of the Gator’s at North Star athletic events.

“He loved everything North Star,” a statement from the school’s principal said. “He will be missed.” 

Members of the LPS Crisis Team were made available for students and staff at the school Wednesday. 

Channel 8 Eyewitness News was there on Bock’s last day at North Star. 

He said his family tried to get him to retire before the school year began, but he was determined to power through. 

“It was my whole life, and I didn’t want to give up my whole life yet,” he said in an interview with Channel 8 Eyewitness News in September. 

Bock said his students were “fantastic,” and that the entire school had been incredibly support of his battle with AMS. 

He said his last day was one of the best. 

“Today isn’t going to go away for a long time,” he said. “Today was probably my most memorable, to be honest. I mean, that was great.”

Having taught thousands of students over his 30-year long career, Bock inspired countless. One former student says Bock inspired her to become a teacher herself.

“I think just showing how much he cared really about you and wanted you to do well really influenced me,” Shelbey White, a 2013 North Star graduate and now student teacher at Hill Elementary School, said. “Caring about you outside of school kind of motivated you to do better inside the classroom as well.”