Mike Furnari

By Eva Sacharuk

Mike came to Pingree in 1985 from Beverly High School. I think it was Woody Merriman who recommended him.

And for me it ushered in a new experience. Finally, there was a colleague with whom I could discuss new

experiments, share demonstrations, search for interesting questions, explain concepts in different ways.

And Mike proved to be an excellent teacher. Very dedicated.

He was always helping students with their problems. When he was teaching AP Bio, he felt that his students would

do better with more instructions so he offered to teach an extra hour before school in order to cover the material.

Unfortunately, the students did not work as hard as their teacher.

Mike was genuinely interested in his students. He invited groups, such as science league members or advisees or

visiting Ukrainian students, to his home for dinner and parties.

He took students to visit colleges such as MIT, to lectures, Science Museum programs, special exhibits at Aquarium,

etc.

And he was creative in his teaching methods. His classes were enlivened with anecdotes about famous scientists.

Once he dressed as Lavoisier, father of chemistry, to make a historical connection.

And he was passionate about his subject. He used extensively his own slides and photographs to illustrate his

lectures. Since Mike worked summers as an interpretive ranger in Acadia National Park and taught about nature and

environment to park visitors, he accumulated a vast collection of slides, videos and photographs. He used these not

only in his classes, but also in a program for the whole school community during an assembly. When Mike traveled

to Galapagos Islands, he shared his experiences and slides again with his students and also did an assembly program

for the school . And when he traveled in France and visited Curie Museum and Pasteur Institute , he brought his

knowledge to his students.

Mike, and Joan too, love to travel. It started as a stint as Peace Corps volunteers in Africa. Later they traveled in

England, France, Galapagos Islands, Italy, China, and Spain and Turkey on a professional exchange, and, of course,

to Florida.

Mike is a lifelong learner. He forever attends lectures, institutes, programs, workshops. He enrolled at Salem College

in an art history class and took advantage of courses offered at Pingree. Here he studied Spanish with Kirki, science

courses with Francie Caudill and various computer workshops.

I have so many wonderful memories of working together. Mike, the years that we worked together were the best

years of my professional life.