Faculty Retirements
Bud Cox 15 YEARS
Jo-Ann Menchetti 13 YEARS
Bud Cox, beloved teacher and friend to many at Poly, came to the school in 2001. He received a BA from Amherst College and an MA at Columbia University’s Teacher College. Throughout his 41-year teaching career, Cox has taught English, art history, music history, and film. In addition, he has coached varsity football and both boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball.
Artist Jo-Ann Menchetti came to Poly in the fall of 2003 to teach AP Art History, and by 2009 she became chair of the Visual Arts Department. In her 13 years at Poly, teaching advanced courses in painting and drawing, she has played a momentous role in guiding students along as both mentor and teacher. Menchetti says that her career path to teaching was “an organic process,” as she studied at Maine College of Art and New York University Graduate School to become an artist. But her love of being with students, helping them internalize and realize new worlds through art, has been the most rewarding. Having grown up as one of nine children in a house that was in a “state of nonstop chaos,” she says it has always felt very natural to be in the classroom. Both she and her husband, Bud Cox, will be moving to their enchanted home in New Mexico.
HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL ENGLISH
V I S UA L A R T S D E PA R T M E N T C H A I R MIDDLE/UPPER SCHOOL
Illustrations by: Shane Sahadi is a comic illustrator as well as fine art painter and filmmaker. You can see his
work in the young adult graphic novel Entertaining an Elephant. He loves teaching young people
the classic skills of fine art as an alternative to digital devices. He
paints large-scale pop art paintings, landscapes, and nudes.
34
T H E B L U E & T H E G R AY
Asked about his time at Poly, Cox said, “Why did these past 15 years seem so short and meaningful? Because of the people in this Poly community. Nothing is more important for students than to probe for the inconsistencies in what they learn. For me, it has been at Poly, a welcoming place for all people no matter their background, where I have understood how challenging and fulfilling relationships can be, what are at the heart of the learning process. Everything from the familiar smells of the hallways and the grounds, the mysteries of Chapels, the teachers who freely and wholly mentor and guide students, and the students from the classes of 2002-2016 makes clear to me how significant the roles they have played in shaping who I am today.
Menchetti’s parting words to Poly? “There are no Cherokee words for goodbye.”