Peggy Fragopoulos
Three generations of a family, spanning over five decades, have a unique, inherited tie to Tech.
Alumna Peggy Fragopoulos, 70, first became familiar with Tech as a child when tagged along with her father, a janitor, to campus.
Fragopoulos said her father, S.P. Adams, worked in T.J. Farr and tended the gardens at the Derryberry house.
“We didn’t have babysitters back then per se or daycare so when Dad went to work during the summer months, I went right along,” Fragopoulos said, “And I think being in that atmosphere, the college, and seeing everything, the students coming and going, is why I went to college.”
Fragopoulos said she believes her previous experiences with her father provided her with knowledge that helped her navigate the school.
“I remember being in Bartoo Hall when a snake got loose, and so, I stayed away from Bartoo Hall for a long time,” she said.
Fragopoulos became familiar with the namesakes of some of the building because of her involvement with the school and the community
“The education department was already in Farr building, and I had Mrs. Farr who was my English teacher in the ninth grade. Well, that building was named after her husband,” she said.
Fragopoulos graduated from Tech in 1970, moved to Greece with her then-husband, but returned to Cookeville to teach at Tech in 1983. She taught until the early 2000s.
Fragopoulos’s daughter, Eleni Fragopoulos, started working in 2012 and currently teaches in the theater department, making her the third generation in their family to be connected to Tech.
“Dad would be proud, bless his heart,” Fragopoulos said.
