Unpredictable route ends in the classroom

Each month "Transitions" profiles an individual who has made significant changes in his or her work life and highlights the techniques used to make the changes.

Jeffrey Meropol, 54

Career transition: From dentist to high school science teacher.

What he used to do: As a DMD (doctor of medical dentistry), owned and operated his own general family practice.

What he does now: Teaches science and coaches sports at The Rivers School, an independent day school for grades six through 12 in Weston.

Making the switch: Based on his early experience as a substitute high school math and physics teacher when he was just out of college in 1973, no one would ever have suspected that Jeffrey Meropol would wind up back in the classroom.

''Years later, I realized what a horrible teacher I was,'' he says. ''I had just turned 22, and I knew this was not for me.''

But 30 years later, inspired, among other things, by his wife's decades-long teaching career, Meropol is indeed back in the classroom. His route, however, was hardly predictable.

Growing up in New Jersey, Meropol showed proficiency in math and science and was encouraged by his parents to consider a career as a professional.

'''You have the ability to become a doctor or lawyer,' they told me,'' says Meropol, adding that his aptitude in math and science eventually led them ''to push me into being an engineer.''

Meropol graduated from high school in 1969, declining a scholarship offer from Penn State and enrolling instead in Tufts University's civil engineering program. But Meropol found his engineering classes ''didn't interest me. Other students would spend hours in the lab and on computers, figuring out stresses, designing bridges. I just didn't like it.''

Given his parents' expectations, and his search for the right professional role, Meropol became attracted to dentistry as a result of a talk he had with a Tufts housemate, who told him, ''You could be your own boss, make your own hours, and have some creativity,'' he says. Meropol eventually became president of the Pre-Dental Society as an undergraduate.

Meropol earned his bachelor's degree in three years, leaving school in December rather than May. He moved into an apartment in Boston and started at Tufts' dental school in August 1973. He graduated with a DMD in 1976.

Meropol then did a year of public health work in Virginia. ''I worked out of a trailer,'' he recalls, ''primarily treating children in a poor strip-mining area.''

By the time the year was over, Meropol had decided to return to Boston and start his own practice. In anticipation of future growth when Route 495 was completed, he hung his shingle in Mansfield. Meropol met his wife-to-be in 1977, and the young couple moved into a home in Sharon. Soon, children came — first a son in 1980, then another son and a daughter later that decade.

As the region's population grew, so did Meropol's practice, right through the 1980s and 1990s. He moved into a larger space, expanded his staff to eight, and even embarked with a partner on a venture to open two mall-based franchises in Rhode Island, which they later sold.

But as he approached his 50th birthday, ''a bunch of things happened,'' Meropol recalls. He was at a point in his practice where he would have to expand, or perhaps consider selling. Then, Meropol's father passed away. He felt vulnerable, and a long-held urge to do more than one thing in his life resurfaced. ''This, to me, was the time,'' he says. ''I was still young enough to start something else.''

He considered his financial situation. ''The market had been wonderful over the last 10 years,'' Meropol says, allowing him to invest, and save for three college educations. ''I had always funded my Keough [retirement plan] to the max,'' he recalls. He also knew he could get a certain amount of money if he sold his dental practice.

''I'd been thinking about it a lot and finally said to myself, 'I'm gonna make this change,''' he says. Meropol was told it might take up to two years to sell the practice, but with the help of a broker he sold it in three days. From December 2000 through June 2001 he stayed on at the practice, helping to ease the transition and bring in some income while he figured out his next move.

Although the sale of his practice generated a significant sum which, coupled with investments, was enough for him and his wife to retire, Meropol was eager to find something new to do. Two of his children were attending The Rivers School when he learned of the school's need for a girls' junior varsity basketball coach. A former high school basketball player, Meropol applied for and got the job, and in spring 2001 he also picked up the boys' varsity golf coaching spot.

Still searching for his next full-time occupation, Meropol met with numerous friends and contacts. Among them was the head of Rivers. After several discussions, Meropol was asked if he was interested in a position teaching in the school's science department. He was excited by the prospect.

''I just love being around kids. Plus, I knew I could be near my own kids,'' Meropol adds. Just as important, he says, was watching his wife's ''incredible passion'' for her teaching career of almost 30 years. ''I didn't have that in dentistry,'' he says.

Meropol worked out the details with the school, took a summer ''boot camp program'' for new teachers, and in fall 2001 started as a full-time chemistry teacher. He now teaches four sections of chemistry and two upper-class electives, anatomy and ethics in science. He also coaches all three seasons. ''I would like to be seen not as a dentist who now teaches, but as a teacher who used to be a dentist,'' says Meropol, whose students call him ''Doc.'' Though he teaches in a private school and was not required to get state certification, Meropol took the Massachusetts teacher exam in chemistry and received the certificate anyway. ''It was important to me to have the professional credential,'' he says.

Now in his fifth year at Rivers, Meropol says, ''I still don't consider it work, I just enjoy it so much.'' He's also not in it for the money, acknowledging that he made six times more in dentistry than he does teaching. It's the supportive culture of the school, his fellow teachers and the students, where he finds the rewards. ''You have to understand, I came from a profession where I saw a different patient every 15 minutes,'' he says. ''Here, I can forge relationships.''

''I'm very happy now, and I see this as something I can do for a long time,'' says Meropol, adding jokingly, ''until they kick me out.''

Do you have a career transition story you would be willing to share? If so, please let us know at transitions@bostonworks.com. Be sure to include your name, phone number, and e-mail address along with a brief description of your career change.