Groton School Awards New Teaching Chairs to Giampetruzzi and Prockop

Groton School has awarded Classics Department Head Scott Giampetruzzi and science teacher David Prockop P’ 15, ’17, with teaching chairs. The School’s 20 endowed teaching chairs are esteemed positions for accomplished faculty; the positions open rarely, typically after a designee retires.

Dave Prockop was awarded the Lathrop Brown Chair, which was established in 1978 in memory of Lathrop Brown 1900 by his widow, Mrs. Helen Hooper Brown. Science teacher Hoyt W. Taylor, who recently retired after 28 years at Groton, had held this chair since 2003. Prockop has been at Groton since 1999 and teaches physics, astronomy, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses. He helped create and launch the STEM program and was its inaugural science teacher. He also coaches boys varsity squash and girls varsity tennis and serves on a variety of administrative committees.

Scott Giampetruzzi was awarded the Sherrard Billings Chair of Classics, which was established in memory of Reverend Sherrard Billings, one of the three original masters when the School was founded. Longtime Classics teacher John Tulp held this chair until his retirement. Giampetruzzi arrived at Groton in 2003. He teaches Latin and Greek at all levels, coaches soccer and baseball, and heads an Upper School boys dorm. His academic interests involve the history and literature of Greece and Rome, and, more specifically, the development of a distinctively Roman understanding of philosophical thought in the literature of the late Republic and early Principate.