Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy

Departing Faculty MembersAndreas EvriviadesMathematics Department,1972–2005Geoffrey TheobaldAcademic Dean, 2001–2005Milton Academy Faculty, 1992–2005Thank you, Andreas, for your 33years of service on the MiltonAcademy faculty in the mathematicsdepartment, where yourknowledge of the subject andyour enthusiasm for mathematicsmade you a respected colleagueand a beloved teacher.You knew all levels of mathematicsfrom Algebra I, to advancedcalculus, and taught them asexciting stories that gripped yourstudents’ imaginations. Thehours of help you generouslygave to some students endearedyou to them, just as your yearsof advising the math teamendeared you to others. YourSAT preparation sessions andyour prize-winning problembooks added to your image as ateacher. You inspired those destinedto become mathematicians,and supported andencouraged those more reluctantto develop their mathematicalabilities. In all you did, youwere driven by your love of thesubject and your love for yourstudents.Your spirit extended to the athleticfield, where you coachedyour track and soccer teams withthe same inclusive enthusiasm,both for varsity and for intramuralteams. We will miss yourfamous Milton cheers and spirit.Boom-a-Giga!Thank for including your familyin the life of the community:your wife Margie and Miltongraduates Alexi, Leo, Anne-Marie and Christina. Your family’shospitality at Milton is legendary,whether hosting GreekEaster celebrations or team celebrations,or any event worthy ofa party. Perhaps most memorablewas your palpable pride aswe celebrated with you Cyprus’membership in the EuropeanUnion: a feast to remember,complete with a toast with yourfather’s homemade sherry.Thank you for bringing thesunny warmth of Cypriot andGreek culture into NewEngland’s chill. How many students’lives were changed by thetrips you guided to Greece andCyprus? How many colleaguesand friends saw your culturethrough your eyes and understoodGreece and Cyprus in adeeper way? How many of usstood with you on the Hill of theMuses at sunset, imagining theclash of armies on the plains ofAthens below as the sun reddenedthe ancient columns ofthe Parthenon?Many years ago, you came tothis country to study mathematics;you made your home andraised your family here. We haverelied upon you for your knowledgeof mathematics as well asfor your kind and generous personality.We are grateful formore than 30 years of service toMilton Academy. Efharisto poli,Andreas. We will miss you, Mr. E.Keith Hills-PilantMathematics DepartmentAndreas EvriviadesGeoffrey TheobaldGeoff, when I think of you, thepicture that springs to mind isyour forward leaning, athleticallypigeon-toed gait, your physicalgrace, your head thrown back inlaughter. I see you in blue blazerand tie, working the crowd at anadmissions or orientation event,and I see you rushing, books inhand and a little late, acrossCentre Street to teach in WareHall. I see you standing on thestairs, against the wall in GreeleyAuditorium, reminding us thattoday is Monday not Tuesday,despite what the calendar says,and don’t forget to turn in yourgrades and comments. I see aportrait of a happily engagedman, most alive when you aremost engaged with us.You were a member of the 13-year club as a student at Milton,before you graduated cum laudeand much celebrated in 1984.You returned to Milton in 1992,after college at the University ofNorth Carolina, where you werea Morehead Scholar, and after afew years teaching at anotherschool. You have done manyjobs at Milton, all of them well.You started out as assistant deanof students and director of communityservice. Two years later,you moved into admissions workas associate director of admissionsand director of financialaid. From 1999 to 2000, youserved as director of admissions.You have taught mathematics,coached golf and girls’ soccer,served as a class dean when thatrole was called “head class advisor,”and been a dorm parent inWolcott House.One thing that is extraordinaryabout you has been your abilityto impress us as a student andthen return to lead us as a dean:not an easy change to pull off.You navigated the shoals of thatpassage from student to peer toleader with grace and tact andhumor, learning along the wayhow to be married and how tobe a father—and how to be thekind of man we admire. Yourhumility shone when you told usthat your two central concerns,teamwork and taking care ofpeople, are simply what youlearned here as a student andwhat you were trained to do hereas a dean and teacher and coach;in your modesty, you would haveus believe that your empathy,intelligence, and warmth, yourgenerosity and discipline andintegrity, are things that we havelaid upon you. But we know better.You have showed us the wayto be, with our students andwith each other.We watch you coaching yourgirls’ soccer team in passing andshooting drills, or working witha wayward Class IV boy on helpinghim understand what he’sdone and accept his responsibilityfor it. We watch you tutoringone of your geometry studentsafter class. We see a happy man.We drop by at recess or lunch orat the end of classes, and see theline of students waiting to seeyou at the office door. Some areanxious, some are sheepish,some are happily waiting to talkwith their mentor. All of them,64 Milton Magazine