Southwest Texas State Teachers College - Pedagog Yearbook (San Marcos, TX)

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PRESIDENT T. G. HARRIS Carrol Stevens, Lela Stulting, Ella Sorrel and Vane Terrell. But we didn't have room to congratulate all those favorites. His fiery editorials gained wide comment, said the 1928 PED- AGOG of one STAR writer. That same editorial writer and his part- ner, Elmer Graham, under the coaching of M. L. Arnold and H. M. Green, won a hard fought debate decision over a Huntsville team in 1928. And that same writer and debator, who was also to gain fame as the painter of the president's garage, is, of course, ex-social sci- ence major, now Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson. His remembrances are here with usfand so many others. Try it and see. There are nostalgic memories on every page of those old PEDAGOGS. His highest ambition is to edit the Normal STAR, said the PEDAGOG in 1911 of Fred Adams, now a suc- cessful Austin businessman. There's the cryptic notice I want a Smith but not a blacksmith, on the Chautauqua Literary Society roll beside the name of Henderson Coquat, now an eminent Texas citizen. Just to mention all the favorite sons and daughters of the Hill who can be remembered from PEDAGOG pictures and inscriptions woud require a sizable chunk of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The same with listing those who have become prominent after gradua- tion. There are all the men and women of the armed forces of two wars. Edward Gary, first ex-student to die, killed as Jap bombers swarmed over unprotected Clark Field on December 7, 1941. So many others. We can't even begin to thank all those exes who so graciously contributed time, help, and money to the College. The Student Union, the Evans Field Bleachers, the Memorial Organ are memori- als to the generosity of members of the Ex-Students Association. Should we concentrate this section on noted educators? A sur- prising number have come from Hill classes. Dr. Joe Roberts of the University of Rochester Medical School, president of the National Heart Association, Dr. David Votaw of Yale, Dr. Joe L. Berry, chairman of the Biology Department at Bryn Mawr, Carroll Key, di- rector of Electronic Research at Pennsylvania State, Sadie Ray Pow- ell, classroom teacher and former president of the Alamo District TSTAQ Dr. Paul Milam, dean of the School of Business Administra- tion, University of Arkansas, and . . . There are even a group of college presidents, Dr. Harm,on Lowman, president of Sam Houston State College, John F. Barron, president of Texas Southmost College, Brownsvilleg J. O. Loftin, president of San Anltonio College, Dr. Bryan Wildenthal, president of San Angelo College, R. P. Ward, president of Edinburg Regional College, R. S. Von Roeder, president of Southwest Texas Junior College, H. F. Springfield, president of Southern School of Fine Arts, Dr. Raymond M. Cavness, former president of Corpus Christi College, and of course the Hill's own Dr. J. G. Fowers. In government service you'll find C. H. Cavness, state auditor, legislator Judge J. Martin Combs, a 1912 diploma graduate, Senator Lyndon Johnson, Henry F. Alves, director of the Division of School Education of the US Office of Education. In every profession, business, calling, trade, there are exes who have made good. Add your own friends to this random sampling. Sciences-Dr. Burnard S. Briggs, organich research, Bell Tele- phone Company . . . Dr. Ben P. Dailey, professor of chemistry, Columbia University . . . Dr. Harris H. Goodman, research chemist, DuPont . . . Dr. Jack Brown, professor of physics, Cornell . . . Dr. James B. McBryde, professor of biology, North Texas State . . . Dr. Darwin D. Davies, professor of chemistry, University of Houston . . . Dr. Iben Browning, research biologist, Washington, D. C .... Dr. Herschel W. Hopson, research chemist, Stanolind Oil Company . . . Dr. Joe Horeczy, research chemist, Humble Oil Com- pany . . . Dr. Elsie Bodeman, chairman of Biology, Department at East Texas State . . . Dr. George Turner, prominent physician of E1 Paso. Law-Edwin Smith, Houston . . . Alexis Brian, Marshall . . scores of others. Home Economics-Miss Lenora Walters, Area Supervisor, Home- making Education, Texas Education Agency, Houston . . . Miss Bess Barnes, assistant professor of Home Economics at this College . . . Mrs. Vivian Johnson Adams, chairman of Home Economics Educa- tion, School of Home Economics, Texas Tech . . . Miss Rhita Jean Sullivan, Area Home Economist, Production Marketing Administra- tion of US Department of Agriculture . . . Miss Nell Krueger, home- making teacher, South San Antonio Schools . . . Mrs. Marion Under- wood, city supervisor, Home and Family Life Education, Corpus Christi Public Schools . . . Dr. Marjorie Brown, head of Home Economics Education, Colorado State College, Fort Collins, Colorado . . . Miss Laura Jim Alkire, Home Economist, Consumer Home Ap- pliance Division, General Electric Company, Bridgeport, Conn .... In music, math, agriculture, journalism, social studies, the list of names is just as l-ong. And even if we mentioned all the people in these fields we could never hope to print all the names and pay appropriate honor to the ex-students who are working at the profession for which this college was established, the classroom teachers and public school administrators. A large majority of the 50,000 students who have studied at this ,College have been or are now, public school teachers. This College can envision no persons of whom it is more proud than those students who have gone forth to a life of teaching. It's impossible for us to attempt a listing of all the exes we are proud of. We're proud of you all. III. PRESIDENTS OF THE COLLEGE -Three Men - One Goal You who desire to qualify yourselves to teach in the schools of Texas, and who have resolved to be real students, will meet a hearty welcome . . . Our mission is to prepare worthy teachers for the schools of Texas. Thomas G. Harris, president, 1903-11. The Legislator of Texas established the Southwest Texas State Teachers College to prepare teachers for the public schools of the state. The entire machinery of the institution is organized in harmony with this purpose. -C. E. Evans, president, 1911-42. This college must continue to train men and women teachers . . . who will go into the communities of Texas to free the minds of boys and girls, to inspire in them a love of the highest virtues and a devotion to Christian democracy as a way of life. In so doing this college can and will bear its share in preserving and extending American democracy. -J. G. Flowers, president, 1942

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Other important things were happening during the '20's, too. The name of the College officially became Southwest Texas State Teachers College in 1925. The Science Building, costing 3150,000, was erected in 1926, taking the place of the older building which had formerly occupied that spot. The Allie Evans Demonstration Cottage was added for the benefit of the Home Economics Department, which had started back in 1910 with 80 girls. The Industrial Arts Building was added to the Power Shop in 1924, the first Men's and W0n1en's Gymnasium built, and a 40-acre Demonstration Farm for agriculture students purchased. DEPRESSION YEARS Enrollment reached a peak in this period before the crash of 129. More than 2,000 students were registered here in the fall and spring terms of 1927 and 1928 but after that came the big decline. By 1955 only 701 students were registered the fall semester. The National Youth Administration put out a helping hand at this time. Under the campus direction of H. E. Speck, dean of men, as many as 300 students a month were given employment. Ap- plications poured in for jobs that paid from 25 to 30 cents an hour, and many a student worked his way through school in the depression years with the help of the nine to fifteen dollars he could earn under NYA. Main difficulty was finding legitimate jobs for everyone. Stu- dents mowed lawns, painted houses, compiled research papers. A host of student librarians provided book-seekers with the best and most rapid service ever seen on the Hill, and almost every teacher had a sccretary. Enrollment began to cimb again after the mid ,30's, and Dr. Evans' building program, helped by US grants, never slackened. The Atfditorium-Laboratory School was completed in 1929 at a cost of S145,000. The Boys, Gymnasium, finished in 1952, was enlarged and remodeled in 1937. That same year the Girls' Gymnasium was com- pleted at a cost of S65,000. The old Music Hall building was renovated and enlarged in 1958, and Southwest Texas State Teachers College got its first dormi- tories during these years. Sayers Hall, first occupied in 1936, and Harris Hall, which received its first men in 1957, were added to the C3mpuS. The building of dormitories on the campus had been approved by the Legislature in March, 1929, but it was not until the 1950's that money became avail- able at a reasonable rate of in- terest to permit construction. During the '50,s Cliffside, Pick- ard, Northside and Hines Halls for girls were opened, and Low- man Hall provided room for 30 members of the Hill athletic squad. The period of expansion be- gun during this period has nev- er slackened, except for war- time restrictions on building ma- terials. In 1942 Dr. Evans re- Ex-Student tired, after 51 years of faith- Senator Lyndon lohngon ful service. lSee Presidents of the College J. Events of the 19403, the war years, the decline of college en- rollments and the swift rise after war with the return of the HG. I.'s to the campus, the inauguration of the postwar building pro- gram, the passage of Gilmer-Aikin laws and their effect upon our entire public school system are too well known to justify lengthy description here. This story of growth will be seen by the ex-student visitor as MAIN ENTRANCE TO LIBRARY stands on the steps in front of historic Old Main and gazes over a hill that has suddenly sprouted new buildings its length and breadth. To mention all of the Southwest Texas State Teachers College exes who have won fame, would be a tremendous taskhand would require many more pages than appear in your 1952 Golden Anni- versary Pedagog. But the editors decided to scan old Pedagogs and Stars in an effort to compile a list of a few of our outstanding for- mer students. Everywhere we looked information relating to promi- nent exes was found. There was the 1915 PEDAGOG ad telling the word that Roy J. Beard and R. H. Montgomery were campus agents for Hollands, Ladies Home journal, and the Texas School Magazine. Now Roy's head of the Star Engraving Company and Dr. Montgomery, whose picture we also found as a member of the Hill track team, is a member of the University of Texas faculty along with Doctors Hob Gray, Clarence Alton Wfiley, Auline Raymond Schrank, and Alfred Wilson Nolle. Certainly the Gaillardians must be mentioned, declared the PEDAGOG searchers, and they hauled out the 1926 PEDAGOG, first year the annual favorites were picked. There were the pictures. Ray Dickson, Janie Ivey, Ben Brite, Vera Lee Cook, Geneva Lancaster,

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During his 31 years as president Dr. Evans helped the Normal Three presidents with but one single goal, the advancement of teacher education. That is the story back of the steady growth, the recognition and honor that comes to Southwest Texas State Teachers College this fifieth anniversary from fellow educational institutions all over the United States. THOMAS GREEN HARRIS, a native of Tennessee, was elected by the State Board of Education to head the one-building Normal School that lonesomely perched atop Chautauqua Hill in San Marcos at its opening in September, 1903. Harris had received his training at Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, Tennessee, earning his A. B. degree in 1876 and his A. M. degree in 1880. No stranger to his adopted Texas, Harris had been superin- tendent of the Austin public schools for six years. Before that he had worked as a classroom teacher and administrator in Weatherford, Dallas, Houston, and Plano, Texas. His wife, whom helmet in Plano, still resides in San Marcos. When Mr. and Mrs. Harris moved to San Marcos, in 1903 they rented a home on the Hill at the spot where the new Infirmary now stands. Upon Mr. Harris' shoulders fell the entire responsibility for organizing the new school, picking its faculty, planning its courses, writing the catalog, making sure the coal-burning stoves were properly installed in the classrooms and trying to plug the leaks that plagued the roof of Old Main in its early years. Principal Harris, he was too modest to let himself be called president, said Mrs. Harris, set an exacting path for faculty and students. 'llf indolent or frivolous, he advertised in his first cata- log, you are advised not to enter the Normal school. Only true men and women, who welcome hard work, and whose course is ever onward and upward, are worthy to be admitted to the ranks of the great brotherhood of teachers. Students sometimes chafed'at his restrictions, at the spelling lesson he made them take during daily chapel, and especially at being kept in after school if they missed the proper diacritical marking of a word. One apocryphal legend claims that Mr. Harris dismissed on the spot a faculty member who misspelled a word on the black- board. Behind his back they sometimes joked and called him , Old Tige. Early annuals are filled with remarks concerning Mr. Harris' statement that students were not sent to the Normal School to fall in love and get married. He was a large, stern-faced man with a drooping mustache, and' students who missed a class or were tardy waited in his office with fear. But not one student can be found today who remembers anything but good about the first president. Says A. W. Birdwell, president emeritus of Stephen F. Austin State College and one-time San Marcos facuty member: I have never Worked with a finer character. I have never known a man who was more absolutely honest, both mentally and morally, and who exercised more courage in the discharge of his ties. administrative du- Weathering the troubles attendant to a school's first years, fsee Historyb, Principal Harris rapidly established a good reputation for his new Normal. Enrollment increased from 300 to almost 600. New faculty members were added and a Science Building com- pleted. I Mr. and Mrs. Harris designed the present president's home, model- ing it after their former Austin home, and took up theirf residence there in 1908. Pincipal Harris conducted the affairs of the young Normal with deftness and efficiency until 1911, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the San Marcos Baptist Academy. He died in 1934. A casual visitor to the Hill in 1903, who had remained in Texas to spearhead the fight for better schools, became the second presi- dent of Southwest Texas State Normal. PRESIDENT C. E. EVANS CECIL EUGENE EVANS in 1911 was chosen to succeed Harris. A native of Alabama Dr. Evans received his education at Oxford College, Alabama QB. A.-1888, when he was only 171 and the University of Texas KM. A.-19067. In recognition of Mr. Evans' work as an educator, Southwestern University conferred upon him the honorary degree of L.L.D. in 1923. Like Harris, Dr. Evans began his career as a classroom teacher. He taught four years in Alabama, moved to Texas and was em- ployed for one year as a teacher at Mexia, worked as superintendent of the Anson public schools from 1895 to 1902, was superintendent at Merkel until 1905 and then served as superintendent of Abilene schools until 1908. At the time Dr. Evans moved to this state, the Texas school sys- tem ranked 38th in the United States. It was to remedy this that a group of educators met to organize the Conference of Education in Texas. The purpose of the conference was the study of educa- tional conditions and needs throughout the state, both for elementary and high schools, the diffusion of information, and the promotion of better standards and more adequate facilities. For three years beginning in 1908, Dr. Evans worked as Gen- eral Agent for this conference, helping to pass legislation to improve Texas Schools. Upon accepting the position as president of South- west Texas State Normal School, Dr. Evans immediately began working with the legislature to improve not only the schools but the entire teacher education system in Texas. ' School develop into a five-year college. The College plant expanded from an original eleven acres to more than double that size. From a three-building school in 1911 the College, by the time of Dr. Evans' retirement in 1942, had grown to 15 classrooms and adminis- tration buildings, 8 dormitories and co-op houses, a 40-acre farm. and a swimming pool and recreation park. Enrollment jumped from 600 to approximately 1,600. President Evans acquired a reputation as a builder during his term of office. One story, probably apocryphal, states that it be- came customary at the opening of each meeting of the Board of Re- gents for some member to ask: Well, Evans. What piece of land do you want to buy now? Dr. Evans is largely responsible for setting up the co-operative college-public school system of teacher training, a system which has been taken up by many other colleges. For 19 years, from' 1923 until his retirement, he was president of the Council of Texas Teachers College Presidents. Shep, as the second president is known to old friends and fel- low Rotary Club members, mingled with students, took the lead in dressing in old clothes for annual Hobo Day, and went for his first ride in an airplane when the College instituted CAA flight training prior to World War II, remarking that: I don't want my students do- ing anything I haven't tried. His little Red Book, has become a