Floyd O. McPhetres

Tunbridge, Vt. — Floyd O. McPhetres died on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018, at home with his family present. He was born on Feb. 22, 1927, in Tunbridge, the son of Archie G. McPhetres and Flora E. (Stoddard) McPhetres. He attended the one-room school near his home and graduated from South Royalton High School in 1944, from the University of Vermont in 1950 and received a master’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1959. During his first year at college he had polio and had to spend most of that year in the hospital or at home, thus delaying his college education. He graduated from the University of Vermont with a major in physics and a minor in mathematics. He compiled such an outstanding record at UVM, that he earned a Phi Beta Kappa pin.

He was predeceased by his son, Jay, after a courageous battle with multiple sclerosis, one brother, Hadley McPhetres, and two sisters, Marzelia Lowell and Halley Slack.

He married Eloise Helen Reynolds on Aug. 22, 1950. He leaves his wife of 67 years; one daughter, Cynthia of Rochester, Vt.; two sons, Michael and his wife, Sherri, of Tunbridge and Christopher and his friend, Wendy, of Royalton, and Sunnie McPhetres, Jay’s wife, of Sharon, Vt.; multiple grandchildren; step-grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

He taught mathematics for forty-three years, four of those years in Wells River, Vt. In September 1954 Floyd joined the Hartford High School faculty. From then until end of school in June 1958 he taught three periods of Driver Education, Algebra I, Algebra II, and Plane Geometry. During the school year 1958-1959 he did graduate work in mathematics at the University of Illinois. He returned to Hartford High School in September 1959. He was made coordinator of mathematics for grades 1-12. Floyd served as the Chairman for the Mathematics department for some 20 years. He accumulated thirty-one years at Hartford High School. He participated in the establishment of Vermont Council of Teachers of Math and its predecessor the Vermont Math and Science Teachers Association. Floyd developed, with the assistance of other math department members, an arithmetic proficiency test in 1972, and the Mathematics basic competency test in 1977. He helped form the Twin State Mathematics League and served as coach of the Hartford Math Team for several years. In October of 1982, Floyd received the Outstanding Vermont Teacher Award from UVM. And in 1984, the Outstanding Vermont Mathematics Teacher Award from Sigma Xi. After leaving Hartford High School, Floyd taught eight years at Vermont Technical College.

Floyd kept busy professionally as a member of the following: Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Hartford Teachers Association, Vermont Education Association, National Education Association (life member), Vermont Council of Teachers of Math, Association of Teachers in New England, Professional Negotiations Committee of Hartford Teachers Association (1957-1968), President Hartford Teachers Association (1968-1969).

He was a member of the board of directors of the Windsor-Orange County Credit Union and served as the president for one year. He assisted with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in Wilder and also served as treasurer of the Wilder PTA. He raised Hereford cattle for a few years. He was a founding member of the Central Vermont Tractor Club and served as both president and secretary of that organization. He served on the Board of Listers and the Tunbridge School Board for a short time. He served as Tunbridge Cemetery Commissioner for 13 years and was instrumental in obtaining the necessary permits and in acquiring an additional piece of land in the establishment of the South Tunbridge Cemetery.

He enjoyed many things, including his family and family parties, living in the Vermont hills, Town Meeting, playing baseball (as a young man), working on the farm, working with teenagers and young adults as their math teacher, playing table games, watching birds and deer from the dining room, working on projects with his sons, learning about the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War and seeing where it was fought, attending the Tunbridge Fair, watching granddaughters play softball, collecting and restoring old farm tractors, exhibiting tractors at shows, driving tractors at parades and on tractor rides, and raising Green Mountain potatoes to show at the Tunbridge Fair. As an avid fan, he enjoyed watching and keeping track of the Boston Red Sox.

A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held on Saturday, Feb. 3, 1 p.m. at Tunbridge Village Church, Tunbridge. Reception will follow, next door, at the Tunbridge Town Hall. Burial will follow in the spring at the Kelsey Mountain Cemetery, Tunbridge.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater New England Chapter, P.O. Box 845945, Boston, MA 02284-5945.

The Boardway & Cilley Funeral Home, Chelsea, Vt. is in charge of arrangements. A private message of sympathy for the family, can be shared at www.boardwayandcilley.com.