Pilates, hiking, a trip to Italy in two weeks, a mother-daughter Las Vegas trip, and other travels in the coming years. This is the future Lynn Pomeroy, 61, looks forward to after retiring as a full-time math professor this semester.

After beginning to teach in March of 1969 at a junior high school, Pomeroy continued graduate school at night and eventually taught at Riverside Community College before moving on to a full-time position at GCC.

“Teaching is the best,” said Pomeroy. “The clock just goes crazy when you teach; you walk in and you talk a little bit and then you find yourself saying ‘where did the time go?'”

Over the 22 years that Pomeroy has worked at GCC, she has taught trigonometry, pre-calculus, calculus and algebra.

The students, social parts of teaching, tutoring, and being involved in various faculty committees were some of the aspects that Pomeroy enjoyed over the years at the campus.

“Hang in there when you first start because it gets better and better,” is Pomeroy’s advice to new teachers. “You enjoy it more and you find creative ways to teach your discipline.”

Pomeroy also had some words of wisdom for students: “Cut down on your work hours and learn to study. Follow the advice of your teachers, they really know what it takes.”
“Students need the luxury of open-ended study time,” Pomeroy added.

As an emeritus professor, Pomeroy will be teaching business calculus, trigonometry and will continue tutoring in the spring.

Pomeroy says she will enjoy working part-time, “I think it’s better than quitting cold turkey.”