Evans: Ready for the next

Summer’s near and school is ending.  High school students are off to college.  College students are looking for jobs.  Like their students, many teachers are facing retirement and planning the next phase of their lives.
For Greene County teacher Tom Evans, retirement this month will be the newest career in a lifetime that has seen several.
“I kind of started late in becoming a teacher,” explains Evans.  “I didn’t start until I was 28.  Before that I was a mailman for a year-and-a-half, a custodian, a moving man and a student union supervisor.”
“In 1976, I decided it was time to get a career,” Evans continues.  “I was accepted into a computer curriculum at a nearby college but on my way back I picked up a brochure.  Inside was an article about coming a teacher and when I read it, I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
While studied for his masters in teaching, Evans also managed to find his avocation: helping the community. 
“I applied for internship for teaching poverty stricken areas with Teacher Corps,” he explains.  “After a year and a half of teaching full time and working after school I had my degree.”
A love of nature, a desire to teach and be part of a community led Evans to Greene County where he has lived and taught for 3 decades. 
“I grew up in the woods of New York State in a town with about 1,000 people,” explains Evans. “My wife, at that time, was going to UVA and I was looking for a job.  It was a choice between Albemarle and Greene schools and I chose Greene.”
“People in Greene were proud not to be from Charlottesville but some of that attitude has changed since then,” Evans admits.  “I am a nostalgic person and like to see the countryside remain unspoiled but it has been interesting to watch the change.”
“It is a representation of America’s melting pot.  People move to Greene to make their home in a safe beautiful place and they bring their culture with them.  So there is a diverse population but the original culture still prevails and the old Greene still exists.”
Evans has seen a lot of the old and new families of Greene in his years with the Greene school system.  Beginning as a teacher in the high school in 1979, he went to the new Ruckersville Elementary School when it opened in 1998. 
“The students have been everything for me,” says Evans. “I tried to do a good job and what they did spurred me on to keep trying. That and the neat stuff I got to tell them about.”
“The one thing that helped me as a teacher was learning to tell stories to capture the attention and imagination of my students,” says Evans. “Teachers are in both the education and the entertainment businesses but we have a great product. We just need to work our talents together to present that product and hope it sticks.”
“My first stories I got from the kids,” laughs Evans about finding the key to storytelling.  “Every kid in Greene County has a story about snakes so I would start talking about snakes and the kids would give me their attention and tell me their stories.”
Storytelling comes naturally for Evans in his other hobby/career: composing and performing music.  For almost 8 years, he has been part of the musical duo “Warmed Over Boys” and during that time wrote some of the songs on their second album.
“I had a 37-year case of writer’s block,” he jokes, “and then I spit out seven songs.  Now I am just waiting for inspiration.”
During the wait Evans helped create the Greene Education Foundation and is proud of his three years on the board.  GEF has given grants to teachers for classroom projects and this year will give out three scholarships to graduating William Monroe High School students.
When Evans is asked about his retirement plans, he first notes that he is not the only Greene County teacher leaving this year.
“I feel a little self-conscious about the attention I am receiving,” says Evans.  “There are many teachers retiring this year.  Good teachers who have worked hard like Linda Hawkins and Dottie Shifflett.”
“There are also a lot of other people from the schools that are ending their careers and retiring this year,” continues Evans.  “Take Bernice from the Ruckersville Elementary School cafeteria.”
While Evans looks forward to the next chapter in his life, he reflects on the years spent teaching.
“I want to say thank you to my students,” remarks Evans on his retirement. “There were always two things I asked from my them: that they pay attention and do their best.  If they can do those two things I have always believed they can be a success.”