Social studies teacher Greg Goddard, a Park alum himself, has been working at Park for 32 years. Now, after 37 years of teaching, he has decided to retire. Goddard said that Park has been, and still is, a special place to him. 

“It’s been a wonderful experience for me, I love St. Louis Park,” Goddard said. “We have a single high school, and it has a real community feel — everyone’s invested. Not just the high school, but the whole aspect and mission of what Park is. It’s been a great place.”

Sophomore Catie Miller said she values the way Goddard interacts with each student, and brings the community aspect into his class

“He has so much energy, and puts his whole body into teaching, it’s really great,” Miller said. “I will miss the way he’s still a person with his students and will ask you about your day and if he sees you in the hallway he’ll say ‘hi.’ He’s really good about actually communicating with his students.”

As someone who has been teaching for 37 years, Goddard said he has spent a lot of his life in an educational setting.

“I majored in psychology in university, and part of that requirement was I had to do an internship,” Goddard said. “I happened to do it in an educational setting that was giving support to students that were challenged in a mainstream setting — I loved it. I was planning on going into counseling, but I decided I wanted to work with high school students. So I changed my focus, and got my graduate degree in education.”

Sophomore Blessing Middleton, who had Goddard for AP European History, said she enjoys the way Goddard brings fun into his teaching.

“He makes teaching enjoyable with jokes and lets the class engage with each other,” Middleton said. “I will miss his humor, he’s pretty funny to be around. He’s taught me to have fun and not take everything so seriously.”

According to Goddard, his favorite part of his job is building personal relationships with students.

“I love the students,” Goddard said. “I got the privilege of working with them, they’re just great. It’s fun to watch them grow, to be excited about learning. It keeps me fresh and I learn from them too.”

According to Sophomore Karen Dworsky she appreciates the way Goddard instructs.

“He uses a lot of expression when he talks which really helps me remember the content,” Dworsky said.

Goddard said that while being an educator was his calling, now it’s time for him to shift gears and move on to the next step in life.

“I’m young enough that I’ve enjoyed every aspect of what I do, it’s time to try something new,” Goddard said. “Educating has been a calling for me, it called me into it. I’ve always felt very passionate about it. I’ve thrown 100% of my life into teaching, and I’m looking forward to what the next calling will be.” 

According to Goddard, he decided to leave Park and has not decided exactly what he is doing afterwards, but is open to different opportunities.

“I may stay in education, I do like working with adolescents and young adults,” Goddard said. “I’m going to miss that the most but I also want something where I’m not taking everything home like I’m doing here. It might be something completely out of education, with other interests like history or art, in athletics and sports and outdoors.”