Lessons Relearned: The life of GC Educators

BY Trey Smallwood

Welcome to issue 16 of this volume of the Georgetonian Backpage where I am attempting to chronicle former Georgetown students’ lives through former student record cards. These cards have been in the back of the Georgetonian office for years and I have been inspired to try to bring myself and my readers knowledge from their lives.

In the past weeks, I have focused on some individuals and some groups. This week, I am featuring Georgetown alumnus that chose to dedicate their lives to education. Some are teachers and others principals, but all dedicated their lives to their students.

This is an important group to me. Many of my family members are teachers, and I intend to be an educator. While, like all of the past groups, I did not know anything about them until I started this project, this is a group I feel an even deeper connection with.

T. B. Threlkeld graduated in 1868. Threlkeld married Harriet Annette Taylor on Christmas Eve 1885. They had one son, William Logan Threlkeld, who graduated from Georgetown in 1915. Threlkeld studied German and French at the “State College” and “studied Spanish alone”presumably meaning he taught it to himself. Threlkeld travelled for 12 years before he taught in public schools for five years and at a private school for 26 years. Threlkeld wrote textbooks for “beginners Latin”, “beginners Arithmetic” and “beginners Algebra.”

John Thomas Walker graduated from Georgetown in 1877 and married Lucy B. Kemper in 1880. They had five children. From 1877 to 1890, Walker was a teacher at a “common school” or public school in Owen Co., Ky.. From 1882 to 1883, he served as the President of Ghent College in Carroll Co., Ky. The from 1890 to 1914 was a “druggist” (pharmacist) and from 1914-1916 was a farmer in Owen Co.. He also served as the county magistrate, a member of the town council, member of the school board and as Vice President of a bank.

Louis N. Wilcoxson graduated from Georgetown in 1891. The card gives no information about his family, but does give a detailed work history. He was a teacher in Kentucky from 1891 to 1892 and from 1913 to 1917. From 1893 to 1902, he was a businessman. The outlier is that Wilcoxson was a teacher and civil servant in the Philippines. He learned the “spanish language” and one Filipino dialect. He also served by appointment for a year as postmaster at Tagbilaran, the capital of the Philippine island of Bohol. In fact, he brags in his card that he handled the mail of 270,000 people”.

Reuben Henry Shipp graduated from Georgetown College in 1893. On Aug. 29, 1894, Shipp married Barbara Allen Bourne. They had one son and one daughter. Shipp went to graduate school at the U. of Chicago and studied English and Pedagogy and then studied Science and Math at the U. of Tenn. He then taught math at the grade school and high school levels. He eventually became the Superintendent of Schools.

Dr. Jesse C. Waller graduated from Georgetown in 1907. He married Nora Lee Pullen in 1908 and had their only daughter, Eleanor in 1909. He received additional bachelors at the U. of Chicago in 1908 and one in 1913 from Columbia. He then received his PhD from George Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn. He was a principal in Louisiana in 1908 and 1909. He then became the principal of Georgetown High from 1909 to 1910. He then served as the Superintendent of Scott Co. schools from 1909 to 1918 and Superintendent of Hopkinsville from 1918 to 1920.

Waldo Emerson Gwynee graduated from Georgetown in 1909. Throughout his life he was married twice, once to Eleanor Chenault in 1910 who passed away, and then married Emma Redwine. He had two kids. Gwynee also went to U. of Chicago where he studied Modern Languages. He was then a principal from 1909 to 1916 and then worked for a textbook company until 1941.

Clarence D. Redding was born Aug. 17, 1898 and graduated from Georgetown in 1919. Redding married May Glass in 1922. He received his masters from the U. of Ky. and Columbia University. He was a high school principal from 1919 to 1922 in Northern Ky.. He then served as a Superintendent in N. Kentucky from 1923 to 1931. He served as a member of the Rotary club, on the Board of Directors of the YMCA and the Salvation Army. He was a member of the Kentucky Education Association, National Education Association and the American Association of School Administrators.

What can you learn from these teachers? It is okay to dedicate your life to public service. One thing I considered when I made my decision to become a teacher was how teachers are viewed in society. While they are not movie stars by any means, society is generally thankful for teachers. However, society can always do a better job of respecting teachers.

Part of respecting teachers is allowing them to do their jobs. These teachers trained to be teachers, and when they were educators, they were allowed to teach in a way to help students. I feel like our students would do much better if politicians worried about the students and the teachers like they worry about the required curriculum.

Teachers make such a big impact on students’ lives. They can, in fact, literally change their students’ lives for the better. I wish all of society could see this.