The long-time James Sheahan Catholic High School teacher died on Tuesday, June 21 at the age of 72.

Nolan Brice, one the teacher's five children, paid tribute to a man he said was beloved by students and colleagues alike.

"He might have hated the school system and the bureaucracy, but he loved teaching," the son said.

"He was so close with his colleagues at Sheahan. They were such a fun and committed group of educators and dad had such a great time with them all."

Mr Brice grew up in America, on the north side of Chicago, in a house with four other siblings and a "tight-knit" family.

An avid sports fan, he received a scholarship to play basketball and study English at Northern Illinois University.

Although he never "grew tall enough to be great" at the sport, it was there that his love of poetry and literature really came into its own.

But it was a trip to Australia to visit a friend during the Chicago blizzard of 1979 that would change the course of his life.

"They travelled around Australia and while he was in Sydney he met my mum Robyn," Mr Brice's son said.

"They had this whirlwind, two-week romance where they fell in love."

But he would eventually have to fly back home to Chicago. The pair would stay in touch as they wrote love letters to each other; then came an offer.

"His parents said that they'd buy him a ticket back to Australia and if he married (my mum) it would be his wedding present, but if he didn't marry her, he'd have to give them the money back," Mr Brice's son said.

"Mum didn't know that they'd talked about that."

But married they did get and they would have the first of their five children - Amy, Aidan, Bridget, Nolan and Elliot - in 1981.

Mr Brice would work as a teacher at St Gregory's College in Campbelltown, before moving to Orange in 1989. The following year he would join the team at James Sheahan where he taught for the next 25 years before his retirement in 2015.

However, it was in 2007 that tragedy occurred when at 23 years old, one of Mr Brice's children Aidan, died.

Nolan Brice said the support the family received always resonated with his now late father.

"One of the things that was really special at the time was seeing the community of Orange rally around my parents and my family," he said.

"We're obviously seeing that right now as well."

Nolan - who went to Orange High School - recounted what it was like to hear his friends at James Sheahan speak glowingly about his dad.

"I always loved it because my friends at Sheahan would talk about how dad was the coolest teacher," he said.

"There was one time that dad had assigned some silent reading to the class and while the kids are meant to be looking down and reading their books, dad's sitting there with scrunched up pieces of paper throwing them in the bin in the corner. Every time he'd get one in he would clock up his score like in a basketball game."

And while that particular story epitomised his love of sport, it was another memory that brought the teacher to tears.

"In the movie Dead Poet's Society, they have this part where they all stand on their desks and say 'o captain my captain' and it's really emotional," Mr Brice's son added.

"These friends of mine at James Sheahan, in 2006, one day they all stood up on the desks and did the 'o captain my captain' for my dad. When he came back and was telling mum about it, he was in tears recounting the story."

It was that kind of immediate feedback which meant the world to the teacher.

"Students can say someone's your favourite teacher or that you had a good time, but you don't really get that feedback because kids grow up and they might leave," he said.

"I don't think my particular year group at Sheahan was particularly special with that though, I think dad had that connection with so many kids and he was always so proud of his role as an educator."

The service for Mr Brice will be at 1.30pm on Monday, June 27 at Penhall Funeral Services for those wishing to attend.

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