Like many aspiring actors, Taylor headed to New York City after graduating from college. But he made the trip not for an acting role, but for a teaching job at Riverdale Country School.

“I decided to give teaching high school physics a try,” Taylor said. “I landed a great job at a school that was willing to invest in my growth, and about a week, maybe two, into classroom teaching, I realized this is where I want to be. The opportunity to create an environment that fosters the growth and development of young people is the greatest privilege in the world. As my career has developed, what I've discovered is that my classroom, so to speak, has gotten bigger, and my ability to influence dimensions of that has grown. At the end of the day, I'm helping to create an environment that fosters the growth and development of young people. And that is a privilege and the best job in the world.”

Taylor’s career has seen him go from classroom teacher to Director of Financial Aid and Outreach then Dean of Students at Riverdale before leaving for Breck School in Minneapolis suburbs where he became Upper School Division Director. After seven years there he returned to Riverdale as Head of Upper School. Then, in the summer of 2023, he became just the second-ever Head of School at Paideia School in Atlanta, a school that is very much like St. Andrew’s – it is preschool through twelfth grade and it is young, only having just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

For all of those accomplishments, for impacting the lives of countless students and fellow teachers, Taylor received the St. Andrew’s Distinguished Alumni Award on October 18 as part of this year’s Homecoming and Reunion.

“I am who I am because of St. Andrew’s and so it is incredibly humbling and enormously flattering to be recognized in this way,” Taylor said. “It really is a testament to St. Andrew’s, which invested in my growth while I was a student, of course, but through partnerships and engagement has continued to invest in my growth.”

Taylor attended St. Andrew’s from seventh grade through graduation and his experience bridged the Bradmoor and Postoak Campuses. And while that was 25-plus years ago, it is easy for him to step back in time and reflect on the teachers who were influential to him.

“I hated history in high school,” Taylor said. “I really didn’t like it. But when I became a teacher, it turned out that the person who I found myself emulating was Glenn Whitman. I didn’t even realize the impact he had on me until I became a teacher. Obviously Kurt Sinclair. I wouldn’t be anywhere without Kurt Sinclair.” Taylor also mentioned math teachers Dorothy Prats and David Brown, and theater teacher Karin Abromaitis as other influences on him during his high school years.

After more than 20 years in the classroom, having a direct impact on thousands of students, Taylor is mindful of his own impact on the next generation, much like those St. Andrew’s legends impacted him.

“It is important to me that when people think back on their time at Paideia or at Riverdale or at Breck, or whatever school I'm working at, that they remember that time as feeling as though the adults knew about them, knew who they were, cared deeply about them as people more than just as students, were supportive of their growth, supportive through challenges, and that their growth and development was fostered in a loving way,” Taylor said. “Frankly, it's less important that they attribute that to me specifically, because if I'm doing my job right, particularly now as Head of School, that's borne out through every person that I work with. So it's less that I want to be the person who did that, and more that it is important that they felt seen and loved and cared for in that way. So in that regard, I do hope that I have had an influence.

“I also hope that in whatever profession they go on to do, that they recognize the importance of belonging, of compassion, of integrity, and intellect. I hope that they bring those values forward as well, whether it's in medicine or in law or business. And then, of course, I always very explicitly put in a plug for teaching to the seniors as they're graduating. I don't think there's a more noble profession than teaching, or than education, because I think anyone who works in a school is an educator, investing in children and in the growth of the society through young people, is vital.”