History in the Making: Richard Avidon Retires

When Richard Avidon left behind his law career to pursue teaching, he brought to the classroom the precision of a corporate lawyer and the intellectual rigor of a cross-examination–tempered over the years by a playful edge.

Since arriving at GDS in 1988, Richard has taught High School history courses that gradually became synonymous with his name. As one former colleague explained, students would say they’re “taking Richard” not “AP History” or “Constitutional Law.” Why say more? Richard’s reputation preceded him: surprising students with pop quizzes that struck fear into even the most prepared, crafting multiple-choice tests so meticulously constructed that they could not possibly be gamed through process of elimination, and cold-calling students on occasion. 

“I remember walking out of Richard’s [Constitutional Law] class with a kind of brain hurt,” said Franklin Foer ʼ92, an author and staff writer at The Atlantic. “He treated the class with the Socratic seriousness of an Ivy League law school, and you knew that if you fed him mediocre work, it would not be greeted with false applause. …He stretched our teenage brains beyond the point that most people thought they could be extended because he had that kind of belief in us.”

With his retirement at the end of 2024-25 school year, Richard closes a chapter marked by decades of influence on generations of GDS students. He served as faculty advisor to the student-led Augur Bit newspaper for more than 20 years, organized the annual Harvard Model Congress trip for over three decades, and mentored the Mock Trial team. He inspired self-reflection, school skits, and career choices. Most of all, he extracted passion, the same kind of passion he brought to every class. 

A Change in Direction 

Richard took a few detours before finding his passion. Born and raised in Queens, New York, he earned a degree in History from Yale. He enjoyed law school at the University of Virginia and secured a clerkship with a federal judge in Baltimore after graduating. He quit a few months in because he disliked the work and the judge.

Shifting gears, Richard moved to DC to do advance work for the 1984 campaign of Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated for vice president by a major party. When the Mondale-Ferraro ticket lost, Richard pivoted back to law and joined a large DC law firm–only to confirm what he’d long suspected. “It wasn’t for me,” he said. The grind and the work felt meaningless–a far cry from the courtroom drama and righteous battles for justice he’d grown up watching on TV. 

It was a college friend who suggested teaching, prompting Richard to apply to several private schools and leave the law firm in 1986. He spent a few months studying French in France and later launched a solo carpentry business–until he finally landed a position at GDS in 1988. 

Richard can’t say exactly when he fell in love with the School, but it happened early on. “I remember going to events like the talent [now variety] show. Students would forget their lines or go off-key, and everyone would applaud and sing along,” he said. “At the public school I attended in New York, people would have booed and made it embarrassing. It was never that way at GDS.”

As the years progressed, Richard’s lawyer friends were trying big cases and gaining recognition. Some would ask if he was still teaching, with an undertone that suggested he’d fallen behind. But something in him had shifted. “I realized that GDS is a great place to be,” Richard said. “And I had a spring in my step every morning.”

Helping Students Discover Their Passions

Hannah Natanson ʼ15 worked closely with Richard as the Augur Bit’s editor-in-chief. She respected him so deeply—and was just intimidated enough—that she had her parents proofread all her emails to him before hitting send. That early reverence grew into a lasting friendship. As a Harvard student, she often sought his advice. Should she stay on the varsity soccer team or free up time to pursue the Harvard Crimson’s managing editor role? Go to medical school or take a leap of faith into journalism?

“I have a career that is a vocation and an avocation because Richard, at crucial points, would say to me: ‘Do what you love,’” said Hannah, now a reporter at The Washington Post. “Every time I needed advice, he would not tell me what to do, but he would talk to me about how to think through it. … Talking with him was like taking a hike mentally and seeing beautiful views.”

Danielle Tarantolo ʼ97 recently found old materials from Richard’s classes in a bin at her parents’ home. Flipping through them brought it all back: the rare thrill of earning a perfect “10” on a pop quiz (“I’m blown away,” he wrote) and the sting of an F in his unmistakable handwriting. She embraced the challenge once she realized she could meet it and took three of his courses, including one on constitutional law.

“It takes brilliance to understand some of these legal concepts, but it takes an added level of brilliance to present them in a way that’s accessible to a bunch of teenagers,” said Danielle, a lawyer at a nonprofit legal services organization in New York. 

Some students panicked when they were assigned to a Richard class, as Sahil Gogtay ʼ16 did his junior year. He considered switching out. “I’m so glad I didn’t because it was one of, if not the most, rewarding class I had at GDS,” said Sahil, who works for a defense technology firm. “Richard devised a course that required you to learn the subject and do second- or third-order thinking, instead of just memorizing facts.”

Marc Tracy ’03 did not shy away from taking several of Richard’s courses and working with him on the Augur Bit. As an eighth grader, Marc had seen Richard in action when he sat in on one of his classes. The day’s topic: The Emancipation Proclamation, not as a sweeping moral decree, but as a strategic document that freed only those enslaved in the Confederacy. 

“Ideas are animating to him, and he wanted them to be animating to you,” said Marc, a reporter at the New York Times. “He made ideas, no matter what they were, feel exciting and high stakes.”

The Softer Side of Avidon

For all his intellectual intensity, what struck many students and teachers alike was how Richard’s tough guy reputation seamlessly coexisted with his exuberance, sharp wit, and unfailing kindness.

His good friend Andy Lipps, a former GDS math teacher, saved a tribute two students wrote when Richard won the Student Council’s teacher of the year award in 2012. The tribute captured many of Richard’s “wonderful quirks,” Andy said. His love of inside jokes. His tests, broken down into his signature “Notable Quotables” and “MultipleMultipleChoice” sections. And his soft side–like when he invited groups of students to his home for dinner or prepared full meals at school and set up cozy spaces so they could enjoy a movie marathon after an AP exam.

“He may joke that he models himself after [Drill] Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket,” the students wrote. “But we all know the truth: he’s a sweetheart.”

That supportive nature extended to many facets of student life. Richard was a regular at Fata shows, theater performances, and track meets–even before his children (Hannah ’19 and Isabel ’25) attended GDS. He’d show up in Rockville for “home” games back when GDS lacked a baseball field. 

And he enjoyed a good laugh, sometimes at his own expense. “Even though he’s such a gifted academic and intellectual to his core, he is also self-deprecating and quick to make fun of his own lack of coolness,” said Bobby Asher, who joined GDS shortly after Richard and now oversees student community programming. 

In class, he is known to read historical novels in character voices and spontaneously burst into song or dance mid-lesson. For years, he wrote pop song parodies for the High School variety show, roped in the entire History department to sing, and had students belt out the chorus. And at the High School Peace Assembly, he gleefully skipped and stomped in rhythm with colleagues and students––bells ringing, sticks clashing, sashes draped–for the Morris Dance, an English folk tradition he organized for decades. Students, teachers, and alumni still talk about the beloved tours he curated through Boston Commons for Harvard Model Congress trips. 

But Richard also saw the limits of tradition. He successfully pushed to open the all-male Morris Dance to everyone. He helped lead the call for caps and gowns at graduation instead of white dresses for girls and suits and ties for boys–a dress code that he felt reinforced gender norms and stereotypes. 

“He is absolutely committed to his values and moral compass and to speaking up for the underdog,” said HS science teacher C.A. Pilling. “He never flinches from doing what he believes is right, even if he knows he will face criticism. His absence will be felt in so many ways.” 

GDS Forever 

Richard said he evolved and even softened since he started teaching at age 30.

He stopped cold-calling people and giving pop quizzes many years ago, once he understood the angst it was causing. “I realized that the kids panicked and that wasn’t a good way for me to gauge what they were gleaning from their reading assignments,” he said. He also reflected on what it meant to teach in a student-centered school and committed himself to meeting students at least halfway instead of waiting for them to reach out. 

“The thing is, I didn’t try to be a tough teacher. It wasn’t a badge of honor for me,” Richard said. “It caused a lot of students to leave my class in advance of getting to know me or getting to see what I did in class or what I was trying to teach them.”

What he hoped to ignite in them, he said, was an appreciation of knowledge for its own sake, of curiosity, wonder, and a richer understanding of the world. Maybe that’s why he stayed so closely connected to many of his former students, to see how they carried that spark forward. 

“I love to find out the rest of their story,” he said. “For me, it’s not about how accomplished they are. It’s about: Are they happy? Did they find something they’re passionate about, something that matters to them? That’s what matters most to me.”

When asked what passion he will pursue next, Richard deadpans: beekeeping. He’s kidding. He’s not sure what’s next, maybe more time in his woodshop (aka his garage). But wherever he ends up, he said his love of GDS isn’t going anywhere.

 “I love GDS, and I love people who love GDS,” Richard said. “My blood runs green.”