For retiring Northview High School Principal Peter Zervakos, true love has been one of the many pleasant benefits of being a Fulton County educator for 30 years.

“I met my wife Sally, who is a music teacher in Fulton County, while I was the band director at Milton [High School] and she was working with the choral program. All of my children have attended Fulton County schools,” Zervakos said.

The “literally thousands of students and colleagues I have known through my work with the school system” were one of the best things about his job, the Johns Creek resident said. When he turns off the lights in his office at Northview for the last time at the end of the school year, it is the people he has met, both young and old, as well as the opportunity to get to know even more that will be hardest to leave behind.

“Most of all I will miss seeing students enter as either timid or overly confident freshmen and watching them grow into fine young adults by graduation. I spend several evenings each week attending games, performances, banquets and so forth. This is the best part of the job — celebrating student achievement.”

Music brought Zervakos into education. Hired straight out of college as a band director in south Fulton in 1979, he became the band orchestra director at Milton High School in 1984.

Six years later, he moved into administration when he opened Tri-Cities High School in south Fulton, then as assistant principal at Chattahoochee High in 1993. He served as North Springs High School principal for five years before his appointment to open Northview in 2002.

His biggest challenge in his three-decade career has been “always striving to improve;” Zervakos said. “There is no room for complacency in education. Even when we encounter obstacles such as the serious economic challenges all school systems are now facing, we must keep our focus on putting what is best for children as the bottom line for any decisions.”

At 51, Zervakos is looking forward to returning to his first love —music. “I really call this restructuring, not retiring. I want to be more active in music and hopefully teach it again, perhaps with private students,” he said.

He also intends to devote more time to his work as conductor of the Hellenic Community Orchestra and being staff organist at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Atlanta.

Though he won’t be there when school bells ring in Fulton Aug. 10, Zervakos said retirement won’t dissolve the bond he has with the education system. “I have literally spent my entire adult life as an employee of this school system. I can not imagine a time when I will not have some connection with the Fulton County Schools.”