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ASM Celebrates Three Retiring Faculty

From Left to Right: Head of School John Palfrey P’21; Margaret, Instructor in Art; Patricia Davison, Coordinator of Student Disability Resources; and John Maier, Instructor in Spanish.

The Andover community celebrated the careers of Patricia Davison, Director of the Academic Skills Center an Coordinator of Student Disability Resources, John Maier, Instructor in Spanish, and Margaret Harrigan, Instructor in Art, this Wednesday, May 23, during All-School Meeting (ASM).

After years of dedicated teaching and service to the Andover community, these three faculty members are retiring at the end of this academic year.

During the ASM, Cecelia Vieira ’18, John Moreland ’18, Annie McGovern ’18, and Carson Teitler ’18 shared stories on their respective faculty members with the audience. Each speech revealed different aspects of each faculty member’s character, in addition to their personal influences on the students.

In her speech for Maier, Vieira shared that she was not only a student of his Spanish classes, but also a member of his Cluster Soccer team. Vieira also spoke to Maier’s ability to encourage students in the face of challenge. 

“He gave me the push I never had in my previous Spanish classes, the push that, truthfully, I didn’t initially want. The reason we come to Andover is for teachers like Dr. Maier, who will expect more from us, drive us from the safety of our comfort zones because they see something in us that we don’t see in ourselves,” said Vieira during her speech.

Vieira continued, “Having him as a teacher has been a true, complete honor, and I am forever grateful for all he has done for me.”

Moreland and McGovern both dedicated their words to Davison, highlighting her work in student advocacy.

“My mentor, my friend, it’s a true honor to graduate alongside you. Thank you for dedicating your life to student advocacy, and thank you for supporting me through my years at Andover. You’ve taught me that it’s my obligation to give when I have something to give,” said Moreland during ASM.

Likewise, Davison said that it was a honor to work with the student body during her 18 years at Andover.

Davison wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “It’s hard to chose one thing for which I am most grateful. I guess I’d have to say that the honor or working with a student body and faculty of such enormous talent and capacity has been a blessing of a lifetime.”

McGovern said in her speech, “I have gotten to know Ms. Davison…on a more personal level, rather than professional. I don’t know how people begin describing Ms. Davison to you all. She is kindhearted, intelligent, patient, empathetic, experienced, and passionate. She is never afraid to seek out for what she believes in, and she always seeks out for us, students.”

Once the podium opened for Teitler to speak, he began recounting his time under Harrigan’s guidance in photography classes. Harrigan’s knowledge of photography especially resonated with him.

“During other classes we did visual analyses of works like Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans.’ Analyzing and reading these images and books in conjunction with critique knowledge of modern photography, she helped our class understand contemporary photographic movements,” said Teitler in his speech.

Teitler continued, “Ms. Harrigan, with the coming years I know you plan to use that knowledge and experience to pursue artistic work and I know that I speak for not only myself but also for many other students that we await with great excitement, your upcoming works.”