George Carras:
CLASS OF 1968
Biggs High SchoolClass of 1968
Biggs, CA
George's Story
It has been 54 years since i graduated BHS. Here are a few reflections of since I was in Biggs. In about 1980 I visited the school w/ my wife and I had dinner w/ Clint Moffitt ’68 and his wife. We had our son w/ us who was about 2 yrs. old. In 2010, I was visiting Steve Rystrom '69 and Becky Rystrom Sundbeck '67 so I went along w/ them to a reunion of Classes ’67-‘69. We went to a restaurant in Oroville for the evening. I spoke to AJ Haggard, Karen Lundberg and a few others. Mel McLaughlin was host / MC for the gathering. Recently, I was sent a classmate link so I signed up not really knowing much of what it was about. I live in Virginia and have since 1997 so do not come to CA much let along the Oroville Chico Biggs area. I am still in contact w/ Dwayne Robinson ’68 via email and Roger Murray ’68 via text and did see him in 2018 in Portland OR - he lives in Ashland OR. Roger and I text and exchanged texts last a few days ago. I saw Dennis Thengvall ’69 in 2010 on my visit to the area and knew his deceased wife before they were married. My wife and I knew Lesley Thengvall when she worked for Chico State.
So, what have I been up to? I married in 1974 and have been married nearly 46 years and have three children, 2 boys and 1 daughter who live in the New York City/New Jersey area, Washington DC and London England. My children chose different professions – TV journalism, environmental pursuits and software engineering, IT and specific software design relayed to finance matters. Each of our children went to undergraduate universities and graduate schools and together the three of them hold eight earned degrees – 3 BA’s, I MA, 3 MSc’s (master of science) 1 Phd. We have five grandchildren.
When I left or was approaching the conclusion of HS, I had a vague idea what was next. In HS, I gained from the education and classes offered and played sports. These included football, track, golf, each of these sports for four years and wrestled for 2 years and played basketball for one year.
But I knew two things upon graduation: first, i wanted to go to college Second, I did not wish to follow the track of my father. My father was an immigrant from small village in southern Greece (population 125) and worked w/ his back and hands all of his life; he worked very hard - he had a third-grade formal education in Greece. I learned my life lessons from him, he was extraordinarily successful in life and I am very proud of my father’s plight. Regardless, I did not want to have to use my back to provide for my livelihood.
What did I do next? I wanted to go to a university so achieved a livelihood by first going to a community college in the Silicon Valley in Los Altos CA. I suppose I went to learn things I may have missed in HS. I obtained an AA degree in the liberal arts taking courses in the humanities, sciences, arts, music and the social sciences. I worked in the library to help with expenses. The school was Foothill College, a feeder school to Stanford. My thought was never to go to Stanford but to a known university. Next, I was admitted to UC Berkeley and studied the ancient world and cultures esp. about Greeks, Romans, ancient Jews and early Christianity, Classics and Near Eastern Studies. I was in the Classics Dept, Religion program, studied languages, ancient Greek. I was in an honors program and g...Expand for more
raduated BA honors and wrote a 150 - pp thesis supervised by a Classicist, John M Dillon whose expertise included the first century world.
Next, I married after graduation and moved to Palo Alto so my wife could go to nursing school. Our next move was to Vancouver, Canada, BC to attended a college affiliated w/ the University of British Columbia, Regent College, a theologically oriented institution. I did a one-year degree followed by a master’s degree at the University of Manchester in northern England. That was a two - year program. In 1979, I was admitted to the University Oxford to pursue a PhD. As part of my PhD for Oxford, I spent a year (1982-3) at the University of Cambridge in England. In the UK, a D.Phil. = PhD program which is essentially producing a book. In Cambridge, I was too affiliated with Trinity College. The areas for my work were on the intersection between ancient Judaism and early Christian in the Greek and Roman worlds. I focused on Paul of Tarsus from the New Testament and Flavius Josephus, a Jerusalem Jew who did his writing as a Roman Jew in Rome.
Since graduating I too had appointments to Oxford as a visiting scholar, visiting fellow and associate faculty at institutions such as Faculty of Oriental Studies, Faculty of Classics, Mansfield College and Christ Church College – each institution is part the University of Oxford.
Little did I ever fathom this was the plight I would be led on following BHS. While in Cambridge a job came open back in Oxford at the University so we returned there for seven additional years, So, I had been in studies and teaching away from the USA from 1976-1990 at these various universities I was fortunate enough to collect the following graduate degrees – a Diploma degree, MA, D.Phil=PhD, MA (hons). I held a lectureship in Oxford in New Testament Studies at Mansfield College and I was a member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion (in Oxford and the UK generally in the 80s and before and until recently there were few professors/ a given department, most people held positions of a fellow, tutor or as I did as a tutor and lecturer. I was also a collegiate Dean at Mansfield College Oxford for three-years. From 1990- 2026 I held two other academic and administration jobs at Whitworth University (Spokane, Washington) and Washington and Lee University (Lexington. Virginia – about 70 miles from Charlottesville where the University of Virginia is Located), In 2026, I will have been at Washington and Lee University for nearly 30 years when I plan to retire in 2026 at the age of 76.
We have lived in Charlottesville Virginia since 1998 and I have an affiliation with the Religious Studies Dept at the University of Virginia as well. My wife worked for the University for nearly 20 years in the Law School and the Medical School until retirement in 2018.
That is about it! Greetings to anyone who may read this.
George Carras
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PICS did not come through - two of my graduationsv - BA and Phd
Graduation Day of BA degree
Pic: John Dillon, Prof. of Classics, UC Berkeley - George Carras’, BA Thesis Supervisor and Director of Honors Program
Pics: George Carras and Elizabeth Chaffee now and since 1974 Carras Marriage
Graduation Day, Phd of George Carras at Oxford University with friends including his wife Elizabeth Carras
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