‘It’s a really big loss’: Monona Grove community goes ‘Pink for Pyng’ in honor of teacher who died suddenly

By Andrew Bandstra Sep 16, 2022 | 9:44 PM

MONONA, Wis. — Students and community members rallied together on Friday to honor a Monona Grove High School teacher who died suddenly earlier this week.

Charles Pyng, a teacher and coach, died at a tennis match on Thursday.

A day later, the stands at Monona Grove’s football game against Mount Horeb were filled with pink — Pyng’s favorite color — in a show of support for the teacher who was described as the school’s backbone.

“It’s a really big loss for everyone. He touched a lot of different people,” Monona Grove senior Conner Fritz said.

Pyng was described as incredibly kind and the kind of person that would cheer a person up no matter how they felt.

“He meant a lot to every person. He was just so kind. He always cared about like everyone else,” senior Tyler Magestro said.

He embodied what it means to be a teacher, and he pushed his students to be the best version of themselves.

“He just always told me to never give up, he always wanted me to just keep pushing to get stuff done, like if I had missing assignments he’d totally motivate me to do them it made me want to do it,” Magestro said.

With classes canceled on Friday, the school offered grief counseling.

Monona’s home football game stayed on as scheduled.

In less than 24 hours, the students organized a pink out, calling the night Pink Out for Pyng. All concessions money was donated to his family.

“He always wore a lot of colorful pink shirts, so that was kind of what we thought about for the theme. He touched a lot of people in the community, so obviously a bunch of people want to come out and show their support,” Fritz said.