Since joining MVS in 1989, Mr. Jon Graetz has become a familiar face in the Upper School. While many know him as our resident math whiz, his interests range from singing in a barbershop quartet to mechanical puzzles and teaching about the Civil Rights movement.
He told me he was born in Columbus, lived there for a time, then moved to Washington, D.C., and, finally, settled in Westerville, a small town about twenty minutes north of Columbus. He said he was the sixth of seven children. And, in little brother fashion, Mr. Graetz admitted he was pretty annoying as a kid. When asked about his college experience, he told me that he first went to Ohio State, then Wright State afterward. Outside of college, he was a part of a comedy troupe. But when he met and married his wife, he realized he needed to finish college. Coincidentally, he had a decent amount of credits in math, so he decided to continue down that path. He had spent much of his life up to that point tutoring and helping friends and family with math, so he eventually came to see teaching as his best career path.
Since Mr. Graetz is lauded at MVS for his unique teaching approach, I asked him who inspired his style of education. He introduced Jerry Meike, who was his Non-Euclidean geometry (a type of geometry that deals with curved spaces instead of flat ones) teacher at Wright State, who made all his students write about the lessons after they were taught. Inspired by this, Mr. Graetz began offering test corrections in his own classes, giving MVS students a much-needed margin of error in his notoriously demanding courses.
Mr. Graetz’s path to MVS began with a recommendation from Mr. Meike, whose son, Roger, attended the school. Although Mr. Meike believed that he would make an excellent teacher at MVS, Mr. Graetz initially wanted to decline the opportunity, believing he needed to teach at a public school to qualify for student loan repayment benefits. Despite graduating from Wright State as the recipient of the “Presidential Scholarship,” which is awarded to the university’s top student, he struggled to find a teaching position. Eventually, MVS called him after Mr. Meike personally recommended Mr. Graetz. And, as Mr. Graetz said himself, “The rest is history!”
Mr. Graetz’s contributions to MVS extend well beyond just mathematics. Over the years, he developed several Immersions, including “Civil Rights: A Living History,” which takes students to historic sites across the American South. The subject is quite personal, as his father, the Rev. Robert Graetz, was the only white clergyman in Montgomery, Alabama, who publicly supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56. He has led various civil rights trips since the 1990s and is running the Immersion again this school year.
Outside of school, Mr. Graetz keeps himself busy writing math competitions like the OHMIO and is an editor for the AMC 10/12 (which many students should find themselves familiar with). In addition, he sings in two barbershop quartets and plays competitive Euchre with his wife. His enthusiasm for problem-solving extends well beyond his classroom. As an avid collector and solver of mechanical puzzles, Mr. Graetz has shared his collection with students through Immersions such as last year’s “Mind Games: Puzzles and Game Design.” With the 2027-28 school year set to be his last, Mr. Graetz will retire after nearly four decades at MVS. He plans to continue these hobbies, along with traveling and visiting his children more often.
When asked, “If you had to name one moment in your life that changed you forever, what would it be?” he responded with a time when he got hit by a car while biking. He went into the air and landed hard on the street, dazed. He went on to say, “I remember being loaded into the ambulance, and while they cut my coat off and tried to put in an IV, I thought to myself, ‘You’ve been hit by a car.’ Then, ‘You could die.’ Then I said, ‘OK.’ I realized then that I didn’t fear death, and it changed me immeasurably.”
