After 41 years at Parker, Chris Griffiths sits relaxed at her desk, reflecting on her time in the school’s Physical Education department. Through her years at Parker, she found her joy in building an environment in which students not only learn physical activities, but also use them as a release.

“I feel like my task is not only to gain more skills and knowledge so that they can live healthier, but to make sure that they have a place and use physical activity as a release,” Griffiths said. “I hope students have a good time in P.E.”

Griffiths loves almost every sport including soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball, intramural badminton, soccer, and track and field. She always had a love for sports, but it wasn’t until her senior year when her P.E. teacher suggested that she go to school to become a P.E. teacher herself.

She’d learn all the activities that she would later teach to thousands of Parker students at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. During her time there, she also minored in psychology, as she felt it would be a “good resource” for working with students and coaching teams.

    When she took her job at Parker in 1974, she coached almost all the varsity girls’ sports, not including tennis and golf. She also coached the middle school boys’ soccer team at one point.

            “Mrs. Griffiths always comes to P.E. with a positive energy,” freshman Sophia Saker said. “She was always willing to teach and also willing to build relationships with her students.”

Along with coaching various sports and teaching the P.E. classes, Griffiths was also the athletic director for eight years, before Pat Pagnucco took her place. Also during this time, she was the head of the P.E. department.

Like many people at Parker, Griffiths felt a sense of community, and this was something she appreciated. This sense of support during times of difficulty, from the Head of School to the students, she said, is her favorite memory of working at Parker.

“To be a part of this community when there were some difficult times in my life,” Griffiths said, “the school was really supportive, and gave me time off to be with my family members.”

Griffiths is many things, but most people didn’t know she was also a part of the Chicago Women’s Rugby Team, for which she played for eight years, traveling from all over the Midwest to California. Rugby, Griffiths said, is one of the best sports that she has ever played.

Prior to speaking with “The Weekly,” Griffiths decided to write two paragraphs on how her experience at Parker has been. In this letter she described that the real joy comes “when students are having fun through activities, when students are recognizing successes, when they become more confident when facing challenges, and when they are working to gain the most from their experiences and opportunities in class.”

Not only has Griffiths coached and taught many students during her time at Parker, but she has also found a sense of confidence in herself. This was a gift that she described as something she would always be grateful for.

“Chris Griffiths is a kind, caring, thoughtful teacher who knows her students well and knows this school very well,” Head of School Dan Frank said.  “She tries her best to help students in her classes achieve all they can and to enjoy themselves in the process. She knows how to inspire people, how to motivate them, in a way that’s organized and really engaging.”

In terms of her retirement, Griffiths said her average day will consist of some form of fitness in the morning, like her newfound love of golf, followed by some kind of volunteer work with animals or at a library.  The rest of her time will be spent with her wife, whom she married last summer.

“I’m not worried one bit about what I’m going to do,” Griffiths said on her retirement.  “I’m looking forward to doing things I’m too tired to do now. I’m looking so forward to all of it. ”