Timothy (Tim) Pugh graduated from Falk in 2012 and was welcomed back to the school in November 2025 for a visit. Originally from Atlanta, Tim’s family moved to Pittsburgh shortly before his second-grade year in Dr. Marian Vollmer’s class. After that, he spent third grade with Ms. Lori Wertz, fourth and fifth grade with Ms. Joanne Ridge, and his Falk Middle School years in Mr. Greg Wittig’s homeroom. 

As a student, Tim played on the soccer, basketball, and tennis teams and had a budding interest in math. Today, he's combined these passions to build a career in sports analytics, most recently as a senior analyst for the Major League Baseball Miami Marlins. 

During a recent trip to Pittsburgh, Tim spent the day at Falk, reliving childhood memories and sharing his professional experience with Intermediate and Middle School students. Tim says he was surprised and delighted to be greeted by so many of his former teachers, who still work at Falk today. 

After sharing a photo of himself on the Falk soccer team, Tim surveyed students about their favorite sports and led them through the basics of baseball analytics. He then asked them to work together to analyze AAA baseball stats and identify candidates for promotion to the Major League. Finally, each grade level had a Q&A session, where they asked Tim everything from his height (6’9”) to his two favorite animals (manatee and giraffe). 

Tim says he’s always been tall, a trait that made him feel like a minor celebrity among the students. As early as third grade, he remembers being asked to stand one step lower than everyone else to balance out the class photo or sometimes just towering over his peers. 

He also remembers creating inflatable maps with Ms. Jackie Metcalf, reading Holes and The Catcher in the Rye for language arts class, and participating in the Middle School production of “Grease”—an experience he thinks of laughingly after altering his role as Kenickie so a more musically inclined friend could take over his solo. 

After Falk, Tim attended Allderdice High School and studied statistics at Harvard. His choice to pursue math was inspired by the fun he had in his sixth-grade math class, taught by Mr. David Ross and then-intern Mr. Michael Yalch. With all the nearby universities and medical facilities, Tim says the environment at Falk was always one where people were excited to learn. 

Falk students are also eager to make lifelong friendships, a phenomenon that Tim is no stranger to. Along with visiting Falk and playing tennis with his mom, Kristen Mertz—a former medical epidemiologist for the Allegheny County Health Department and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health—Tim spent his recent stay in Pittsburgh catching up with friends who still live in the area. Although many of them have gone their separate ways since leaving Falk, Tim says they remain in close touch. Next year, he’ll even be the best man in former classmate Willie Keeler’s wedding.