Dan Sharkovitz, longtime English teacher at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, announced his retirement on Monday, effective at the end of the current school year.
Mr. Sharkovitz, known as “Shark” to students and faculty, began at the high school in 1979. He has been overseeing High School View, the school newspaper that’s published weekly as part of the The Times, since 1995. He’s been the chairman of the English department for the past 14 years.
Willa Vigneault, a high school senior and one of the editors-in-chief at High School View, spoke about her experience with Mr. Sharkovitz on Monday night at the high school committee meeting, when his retirement was announced.
“I know I will receive a lecture from him for saying something this cliché, but I’m relieved that I am graduating MVRHS this year, because I cannot imagine the MVRHS community without him,” Ms. Vigneault said.
Mr. Sharkovitz has a long list of things he wants to do in retirement. “I love to write,” he said in a conversation with The Times on Tuesday, and is in the process of finishing a play he’s been working on for the past three years. The play is based on the years before he moved to the Vineyard, when he was going to college at Northeastern University in Boston. Every Tuesday, he attended a poetry-writing workshop at the Stone Soup Gallery in Boston, and describes an eclectic group of people who were looking to advance their writing.
“I always wanted to write about my experience, as someone who found that opportunity,” Mr. Sharkovitz said, estimating he will be done with the project in another six months.
Although he hasn’t done a lot of traveling, Mr. Sharkovitz plans to travel, and is hoping his four children want to join him at places like Stratford-upon-Avon and Stonehenge in England.
Another goal is to climb to the top of Mount Rainier in Washington. He’s also writing a book about vocabulary, hopes to pursue a degree in Shakespeare, and to work part-time at colleges. “I want to keep my hands in education,” he said.
