MILFORD – Milford middle school educator and coach Steve Erdody was named Milford Citizen of the Year, during last weekend’s 30th annual pumpkin festival.

The very down-to-earth Erdody said he was surprised by the honor.

“I was really taken aback by it,” he said. “I’ve been in this town since I was five and went to school here (graduating in 1982). When I came back and took a teaching job here, I said, ‘OK, this is my community.’ And I am of the belief that you should give back to the community.”

Erdody, who has been teaching for thirty years, and is a technology education teacher at MMS, said it’s the great group of people that call Milford home, that makes the award that more special.

“My grandfather was part of the Rotary and the Lions club, and he was on the planning board,” he said. “So maybe I looked at him a little bit. Plus, it was just my mom – I was the oldest of five boys. And, part of me had to take a bigger role. I saw how my grandfather was around town. And going forward from that, I felt that if I was going to be here, I was going to get involved.”

Erdody is active in MMS sports, having coached over four decades of baseball, basketball and softball. He is also vice chairman of the Trails Committee.

His wife Cheryl is also a teacher at MMS and they have three children who attended Milford schools.

“I always asked what ‘can I do to make the town better?'” he said. “But there are lots of people that do the same thing that I do. And there are probably more than a dozen other people who could have won this award. The way I see it, putting the effort in actually means something.”

Erdody said generally speaking, Milford continues to move in the right direction.

“When I get my sixth-grade students in at the beginning of the school year, I tell them, ‘you’re stuck with me for the next three years,'” he chided. “‘And the better we know each other, the better off we are.'”

He added that he asks them to complete a paper, detailing their interests and likes and then he shares his own interests and likes and finds a common ground with his class.

“I want to know what books they like, what is their favorite movie, that kind of thing,” said Erdody. “And I ask them what the like most about Milford. I tell them that it’s a beautiful place, that it’s a small town that looks great. I even put up slide, of a picture of the town decorated at Christmas time. And I tell my students that the best thing about Milford is the people.”

Erdody recalled when his brother past in 2005, and the community rallied around his family.

“When my brother was sick, people came out of the woodwork,” he shared. “They gave him a laptop when he was going through cancer treatment. They held a fundraiser for him. People were amazing. Hundreds of them. It’s a wonderful town in that way.”

Through it all, Erdody remains humbled.

“Being able to give back to the town, that gave to you is something you’ll never forget,” he said. “And I like to remind my students that you don’t have to go away from here to make a difference in the world.”

And he even joked about being, “turned around.”

“Years ago, they would have probably pushed me out of the oval,” he said with a laugh. “And now they’re giving me an award.”