Professor Thomson “Tom” Garey, chair of the theatre arts department, has decided to retire after this semester and focus on things he hasn’t had time for thus far. However, he will continue to be a part of the City College theatre program until the completion of the Garvin Theatre.

After 36 years of teaching at City College, he believes it’s time to move on, even if there is a sense of uncertainty about leaving his old life and passion behind.

“I have never doubted that teaching was the right choice of career,” Garey said. “For myself, teaching theatre has been the most wondrously spent lifetime.”

Elisabeth Brånsgård, a student in Garey’s Development of Drama class, describes him as open-minded and said it’s obvious that he loves theatre.

“He has made it easier for me to understand plays and how they are built,” she said. “I’m sure it will help me as an actress in the future.”

Brånsgård said she would always remember the way he begins every class by showing the students clips of musicals and plays, which has introduced her to a huge amount of material.

“I will always remember that and be thankful,” Brånsgård said.

Garey was born in Maryland, and has been involved in theatre since he was 13. It wasn’t until he dropped out from his first year of college as an engineering major, and spent a few years working for various electric companies, that he finally knew what he wanted to do.

Garey worked as a technician with a group called “The Children’s Theatre Association” and saw people who made careers out of it and thought:

“They’re doing it, why can’t I?”

He took up his studies again, but, alternatively, as a theatre major. After Garey graduated, he worked for several professional theatres, one of them being the National Theatre of the Kennedy Center.

Garey said he has tried to stay away from movies because he finds it too demanding. He only planned to stay at City College for about 5 years, but instead it became 36.

Garey won the 2008-09 Hayward Award for Excellence in Education.

“I get to teach at a wonderful college that supports what we do,” Garey said. “I get to design plays I want to design. It’s paradise, and I get paid.”

Garey continued by saying that he will miss the teaching, and the wonderful colleagues. But one has to move on, and now is the time.

“The department is ready to move ahead with some different people. I think it’s healthy,” Garey said. “New faces tend to make a department stay healthy.”

“The best about my job is that everything is constantly changing,” he added. “It’s never boring, teaching a class is a performance.”

Garey often tells his students to “just do it,” and that we don’t learn nearly as much from our successes as we do from our failures.

“I believe that theatre best prepares students for a career,” Garey said. “It teaches you everything you need to know to be successful.”

In addition to working with theatre, Garey likes to cook, sail and travel. With the spare time he will have after this semester, he will first and foremost go back to Europe and explore new parts of the continent.

Garey will also continue to do some freelance designing with City College.

“I would never do what I’m doing if I didn’t have a bad first year of college. I’m not proud of it, but otherwise I would never have found this path,” he said.