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Reflections – PFTR

For years, I have given Judy grief for reading obituaries. I think she reads them from every town where we have lived, especially her home town. Guess what I found myself doing last night. Yup, reading obituaries. It was the obituaries of a couple of people who had a meaningful impact on my life. One from a career perspective and one from a fun perspective.

I met Dr. Ernest (Ernie) Tsivoglou many, many years ago when I was a student at Georgia Tech. He was a retiring professor in the Environmental Engineering Department. I don’t remember what first brought us together but I do remember many learning opportunities and enjoyable times.

Ernie didn’t live too far from the Georgia Tech campus and I remember spending many Saturdays at his house doing “odd” jobs. I say odd because I don’t think he really cared about getting much work done. He was really looking for that interaction with young people and the opportunity to be a mentor. And in my case, he succeeded.

I would sit with Ernie at his kitchen table, always drinking black coffee in fine china cups, but the coffee was made in one of those old metal percolators that sat on the stove. Ernie always sketched out his ideas or the topic of discussion for the day on engineer’s quadrille paper.  He always wrote with a fountain pen containing blue-black ink. Guess what my favorite writing instrument is. Yup, you got it, a nice fountain pen with blue-black ink.

I do remember one real job we performed and that was to install a sprinkler system at his house.  You would have thought we were building an airplane. Every detail was sketched out on many sheets of paper to the nth degree.  It ended up being a great system and it worked without a hitch.

When I graduated from Tech, finding a job was very difficult so Dr Tsivoglou hired me for 3 months until a full time job opened. He had a contract with the state of Georgia to perform stream studies and my temporary employment turned into the start of a full time career.

My first boss at the State was also a disciple of Tsivoglou as was his boss. I had the privilege to work with some of the best of the best in the field of environmental engineering, we accomplished some great things and those interactions were invaluable, unlike like the kinds of interactions experienced in the latter part of my career.

I am providing a link to Dr. Tsivoglou’s obituary, which was written my my first boss. It provides a glimpse into the man I am happy to call a mentor and a friend.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=96747513

Next week, I’ll tell you about the fun mentor.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this with your readers. As an educator we never know the full extent of how we touch other lives along life’s pathway.

  3. I LOVE obituaries. They’re like short stories. My favorites always include a photo of the deceased, preferably with their pet. I read one that had the person’s favorite lemon cookie recipe. Before you write me off as a crank, I also love fountain pens and quadrille paper notebooks.

    But I’m really writing, bc your post reminded me that when I was young and living in Manhattan and looking for oh-so-scarce apartments, we would get the Sunday paper early on Saturday (minus the latest news section) to read the obituaries for leads on soon to be vacant flats. That was way back before the internet and even further back when people had their phone #’s listed in the phone book. Maybe Judy should read the obits in Missouri and you can research where they lived on Spokeo and see what their house looks like. I know it may sound ghoulish, but when you’re desperate…..

  5. Thanks for sharing. He must have made a big impact on our world as well as your life. I enjoy your posts.

  6. Enjoyed the story and the obit. So you are a ramblin wreck! I’m a war eagle myself. I miss that rivalry game and the wreck tech parade. It’s nice to remember the good old days.

  7. Enjoyed your post How nice of you to pay homage and honor your mentor in this way. I always say as long as we speak, and think, of people who have passed, that they are not truly gone.

  9. Vince I hope that you had a chance to tell him what he meant to you. Sometimes we forget the people that have had a profound effect on our lives. Not exactly taking them for granted, but not telling them either. Thank you for sharing. I am very sorry for your loss..such a wonderful man…

  10. I’m not an obituary reader but I really enjoyed reading about Dr.Tsivoglou’s life. Thank you for a momentary diversion from the chaos of today.

  13. Thank you for sharing memories of your mentor. I wish that there were more men like him & you, also to influence young men in our crazy world now. Looking forward to reading about your fun mentor!
    BTW ~ I do like to read obituaries of people I do know & even those I don’t. I like reading where they were born but not about their careers. I like the often unknown finer details of what they enjoyed through out their life! Many of these details restore my faith in mankind.

  16. That was so interesting. When we are busy building a life, we don’t really know who is making an impact, but looking back, it’s quite a tribute to see what an impact this man made on you. He sounds like a kind and optimistic man. He certainly had faith in you!

  17. Thanks for sharing. My mom always said she read the obituaries to see if she was in them. She passed several years ago and now I get a daily email from the paper with obits and a email from our local/hometown funeral home when anyone dies. I almost always know the person or a relative. It’s fun to reminisce about what these folks taught us. This week it was the old bachelor who sat in front of us at mass each week. He was ancient back then when I was 8 and that was 30 years ago. He died at 78.

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