Hills sadly said goodbye to another one of our wonderful staff, Mr.Panas. With a big smile on his face and a solar system themed tie, he said his bittersweet farewells to his colleagues and students.

Mr. Panas taught for a grand total of 22 and a half years, and has spread his knowledge in a wide variety of science classes. These include biology, geology, AP Biology, environmental science, forensic science, freshmen science research, and of course, his favorite class, astrobiology. 

Dr. Defina is a teacher for AP Biology and Anatomy, and has been a co-worker with Panas for many years. He shares his words of gratitude for Mr.Panas: “Mr Greg Panas has completed 23 years teaching in the Science Department at Wayne Hills. Mr. Panas consistently maintained high standards for his students with reasonable and productive expectations. He is a competent and dedicated educator. Although his main focus has been in teaching Forensics and AstroBiology, he also taught Biology over the years and an elective in Environmental Science. Mr. Panas is appreciated for his time and efforts in maintaining an active and constructive classroom as he applied updated pedagogical knowledge and strategies that added to the success of his teaching. He has always been a cooperative, collaborative, and supportive member of the Science Department. His interests have continuously revolved around what is best for his students. We wish him a healthy and happy retirement, and we thank him for service and contributions to Wayne Hills. He will be missed.”

Catie Galloza, a junior at Hills, was a student of Panas and expressed her positive experience in his classroom: “I loved how Mr. Panas didn’t push his students so hard but rather focused on engaging with students activity-wise in a way that didn’t feel stressful, but more fun and informative. Not only did he put effort into his activities, but he was never harsh with deadlines and always gave absent students time to make up work and never rushed. Mr. Panas is extremely educated and being in his class was great because he was always aware of currents issues and related them back to what he was teaching. It’s a shame to see him go.”

Below was an interview conducted by the Patriot Press asking about his past, present, and future:

First off, can you introduce yourself? 

“Sure, my name is Greg Panas and I’ve been teaching at Wayne Hills for 22 and a half years. I’m currently 67 years old. “

How did you start your career in teaching? 

“Wow, that is a very difficult question to answer. It’s a very long answer. My parents, my grandparents owned a dairy farm. Basically it was her grandmother and her sister that own the dairy farm in West Paterson. When I was born in 1955, they sold the cows and then in 1957, they sold the milk routes, and then, slowly, they sold off the property for industrial use in West Paterson. Since it was split between two families, one sister got half of the profit and my grandmother got the other half and spread it between family members. My grandmother’s sister actually only had one child, so when he passed away, me and my brothers inherited the dairy money. That gave me a phenomenal opportunit and at that time I was 40 years old, so I had a choice of doing whatever I wanted to and I decided to go back to college and earn a biology degree and become a teacher. So I didn’t start teaching until 44 years old.”

So what were you doing prior to teaching?

“When I was in college in the 70s, my friend and I started a towing business on the side. So we were towing and traveling on Route 80 and 46, you know the major highways where lots of people had broken down cars. We towed their cars to wherever they needed and we became very very successful. So we were thinking that if we had a place where we could tow the cars and fix them ourselves, we could make more money. So I quit college and I was a math and business major at that time. I had gotten all the way through Calc 3 and through differential equations. I only had about 20 credits to have my math and business degree. Anyways, we opened up a gas station and only one of us could become the dealer so I became the dealer of a mobile gas station on route 23, right near the entrance to the willowbrook mall which is now a Starbucks (laughter). We built up a pretty good business and did that for a number of years. We even had the towing and road service contract during the winter and around Christmas time. We got involved with snow plowing contracts, but eventually my partner and I decided to sell the business, and that was back around 1990 when I sold the business and I worked for my father in law in the building industrial trade. My father-in-law started a hardware store, but he developed it to a gigantic Home Depot sort of store and I worked for him for about 4 or 5 years. Then that’s when I went back to college. I basically had three careers.”

What made you want to teach/go into teaching? 

“It was just the fact that at the time I did get a little bit of inheritance and I had the chance to do anything I possibly wanted to do.  And I think it was my sister-in-law that said why don’t you become a science teacher? And I thought about it and I said that might be fun. It really just came to the point where, when I came to work, it was just sharing things that I like and its not like I’m being forced to teach anything because I enjoy these subjects a lot. But even after I leave, I’m looking to join some astronomy clubs, and volunteer at the American Museum of Natural History and work at the planetary there.”

Were you always interested in the field of science? 

“As a kid, I was always interested. At night I would want to watch Novo, but my wife would want to watch sitcoms(laughter). I’ve always had a great interest in science ever since I was very young. I got my first telescope when I was about 8 years old.”

What do you think is the most rewarding thing about teaching students? 

“This might be a little selfish, but over the course of your lifetime you build up a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience in the area of not just science, but life overall. Its just a wonderful thing to be able to share your knowledge and experience with others and pass on the wisdom you have. We all make mistakes and that’s mainly how we learn, but its nice if you can avoid some mistakes by learning about the mistakes of others. I think that is what sometimes separates the people that are smart and not smart.”

Since you are retiring, do you have any advice for the other teachers at Hills? 

“I would say that, if they truly care about teaching, they have to do everything in their power to help other teachers become better and to help them overcome the challenges that teachers face every single day. I did that by getting involved in the Teachers’ Union and I was the treasurer for the Wayne Education Association for 16 years and currently the treasurer of the Passaic County Education Association which covers all the teachers, para-professionals, custodians, and support staff. I think that’s important to because we want to prompt public education and keep it strong because I think thats what truly makes America great.”

How do you feel that now you’re retiring? What are your plans after retirement? 

“Well, right now it’s a transitional state. I would describe it to you as when you graduate highschool, most of you guys have already got the next fours years lined up ahead of you. But after you graduate college, you have been focusing so much on getting this diploma and so, when you leave its like now what? So that’s a little bit of what I’m feeling. I do have a lot of things set up already like my two vacations, things you basically can’t do as a teacher. So for example, my upcoming vacation is Winter in Yellowstone and we will be staying in the lodges in Yellowstone. We will be taken around the snowcaps through the park. We will be watching the interactions of the wolves, the elks, and buffalos and it will just be a whole different perspective in the winter because you can’t do that when you’re teaching. After that it will be Iceland, and my wife and I have been to Iceland in the summer time, and as a geologist, it really is a place where dreams come true. It’s one of the places that have the most diverse geological, geophysical, and geothermal properties that you can ever see on the planet. So that should be an interesting trip as well. We have other trips planned as well such as the Antarctic, which I could not do while teaching since you want to go during their summer time, but its our winter time so it is basically about these vacations, that’s the main reason why I’m retiring to do these vacations in parts of the world that you need to go during the winter time.” 

Thank you Mr.Panas for all your efforts and passion to teach and inspire students at Wayne Hills. You will surely be missed!