School in mourning as teacher dies
An Auckland boys’ college is mourning a much-loved staff member. Peter Lyons, an economics teacher at St Peter’s College, and a Herald columnist, died at his home on Wednesday.
“Peter’s death has been a huge shock and devastating for the whole school community. We have lost a beloved colleague and popular teacher,” principal James Bentley said.
Lyons, 55, had extensive experience teaching economics in Kiwi secondary schools and wrote textbooks in the subject. “He made it fun and introduced concepts like the stock market and how stocks worked. The boys fell in love with that. He set up trading clubs for the kids to invest in stocks — he taught them how to monitor and when to sell — we are talking small amounts of money.
“There is absolutely no doubt his influence led to hundreds if not thousands of his former students pursuing careers in finance and economics.”
Staff at the Catholic school would also go to Lyons for financial advice.
“He would tell the staff when to fix mortgages and when not to — he was incredibly knowledgeable.”
Lyons had been an economics teacher at St Peter’s since 2007, Bentley said. “Peter was a bachelor but he had a very large extended family. He was an avid traveller.”
Although Lyons had a degenerative eye condition and his eyesight was rapidly deteriorating, it never held him back. He was independent in how he lived his life.
Liz Lyons, his youngest sister, said Peter was passionate about financial literacy in schools.
“I will miss Peter’s caring nature. He was the sharpest wit in the room, he was curious, adventurous and kind. He was the most amazing uncle and looked after our dad for about 14 years. Peter lost his great mate when he lost dad this year.”
Lyons was a follower of Stoicism, a philosophy about living each day.
Lyons was also a well-known and well-informed writer for the New Zealand Herald and Otago Daily Times.
Bentley said some of Lyons’ former students have contacted the school to pay their respects. His funeral is next week at Eden Park.