Ask any student who attended South Elementary School in the past 17 years who David Giribaldi is, and you’re likely to get a blank look.
But ask them who Mr. G is, and you’re likely to get a smile.
Mr. G is retiring after 17 years as a gym teacher in Andover and was honored with a celebration at the school on Friday. The highlight was the renaming of the school’s recently refurbished basketball courts in his honor.
“He is by far the best and funniest teacher I ever had,” Lila Carley, a fifth grader at the school, said last month. “At South School we will miss him, his fun, happy energy, and his Boston accent.”
Lila said Mr. G was also on the sidelines when her team, the only all-girls’ flag football team in an all-boys’ league, made it to the Superbowl last year.
“Seventeen years is a long time to be a gym teacher, and I know he would be honored,” Lila told the school committee last month when she and other fifth grade students and parents asked the Andover School Committee for permission to dedicate the court to Giribaldi. “It would be a great way for him to retire, knowing so many people loved having him as a teacher and a co-worker, and that his name will always be in the South School Hall of Fame and in our hearts.”
In addition to his work at South School, he has coached boys’ and girls’ high school basketball in Andover, Lawrence and Methuen and has been a referee for youth basketball. His son David scored 1,072 career points for Andover between 2011 and 2014.
“We love Mr. G, and we hope he knows that,” Lila said.
Stock photo.