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

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PRESIDENT I. G. FLOWERS legend among thousands of Hill students, who know that Dr. Evans is ready on a moment's notice to whip out the correct quo- tation or idea for a speech. His prodigious memory, which permits him to recall not only the names but something of the history of almost every student who entered his office during his 51-year presidency, amazes and delights everyone. During his years he missed only one meeting of the Board of Regents. A host of friends, ex-students and fellow educators paid tribute to Pre:-ty Evans at his retirement in August, 1942. Senator Lyndon johnson, at one time secretary to Dr. Evans, came from Washington to speak at the ceremonies. Even in retirement Dr. Evans never neglects the school he helped to build. Preserving many of the characteristics that made nieces and nephews nickname him Uncle Boy, he is seen around the campus daily, chatting with friends, working in the Library at the book he is writing on the history of Texas education and keeping a watchful eye over his College. An ex-student returned to his old campus in 1942 to become the third president and to bring national recognition to Southwest Texas State Teachers College. Native Texan JOHN GARLAND FLOWERS was reared on a ranch near Pearsall, completed work on a teacher's certificate at Southwest Texas State Normal School before degrees were granted here, then earnd his B. A. at East Texas in 1924, his M. A. in 1925 and his Ph. D. in 1932 at Columbia University. While on the Hill freshman Flowers in 1912 sang bass in the Mendelssohn Club choir and debated with fellow members of the Chautauqua Literary Society. Beneath his name in the 1913 Peda- gog is this legend: His thunder tous voicel shook the mighty deep. Here on the Hill he also met, for the first time since they were children, and courted Lora Hogan, taking her for picnics in the Fish Hatchery, rowboating on the river, and Kodaking on Sunday after- noons. The Hogans owned a boarding house located on the site of the present Library. The two were married on December 24, 1916. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Flowers moved to Pre- mont, where the bridegroom was teaching in the public schools. For the next 21 years the two worked and taught together, in the ele- mentary grades, in high school, and then in college. Mrs. Flowers con- tinued to teach, along with the job of raising their two children, john Garland and Mary, until Dr. Flowers was elected to the presi- dency of State Teachers College, Lock Haven, Pa., in 1957. During the dark years of Word War 11, when enrollment drop- ped to less than 500 and students and faculty alike trooped off to war. President Flowers began to make plans to buy land for his dream, a Greater College Building Program. Now in the tenth year of his presidency he has seen much of that dream come true. Since the ending of the war seven new buildings have been add- ed to the campus, six of them to be dedicated at the Golden Anni- versary Homecoming. A 558-acre experimental farm and ranch has been acquired. The College Agricultural Department has been cer- tified for benefits under the Smith-Hughes Act. The faculty has in- creased to more than 100, with almost a third holding doctor's de- grees and all possessing at least the master's degree. A 125-acre Col- lege ranch in Wimberley, a gift of former regent Mrs. Sallie Beretta, provides a recreation and camping spot for College students. An examination of the master building plan approved by the Board of Regents indicates that nine more buildings, including another wing to the Library, a building for the Industrial Arts and Agriculture De- partments, and a number of dorms and co-ops. are also planned for the Hill. Not only in building, however, has Dr. Flowers attracted atten- tion to the College. A ife-long goal of the President has been the raising, not only of standards of teaching, but also the raising of teachers' standings in the eyes of the community. We must build a teaching profession that is as jealous of its high standards as the medical profession, says Dr. Flowers. It was such a feeling that led to the formation of the American Association of College for Teacher Education. of which this college is a charter member. Dr. Flowers was elected president of this organization in 1950 and in January, 1951, this College had the honor of being picked as one of the first four colleges in the U. S. to be evaluated by an AACTE committee which plans to use the results partly gained here as a yardstick to inspect other teachers colleges over a 4-year period. ln recognition of his achievements as an educator, Dr. Flowers at the end of World War 11 was asked to serve on the staff of the occupying forces in japan as director of teacher training. Pressure of work at the College prevented his acceptance. ln the summer of 1949 Dr. Flowers traveled to Germany as a member of an ll-man American educational commission to make a study of German edu- cational needs for the American Military Government. An active worker in the cause of better international understanding as a means of promoting world peace, Dr. Flowers has initiated on the South- west Texas State Teachers College campus a foreign exchange pro- gram which each year brings a number of foreign students to San Marcos. One of the first to foresee the tremendous shortages of teachers that would trouble this country after the war, he did everything in his power to induce capable people to prepare themselves for the pro- fession. Great gains have been made at the College, particularly in the field of elementary education, during Dr. Flowers' presidency. Now the number of elementary teachers being trained at the College in San Marcos is steadily increasing. Faculty members often marvel at their president. at the way in which his office door stands open to all visitors, great and small, at his interest in all problems, at the manner in which he keeps in- formed on all College happenings, and at his unfailing humor and willingness to cooperate on any project. Actually there's no reason for faculty amazement. When Dr. Evans decided to retire faculty members were asked to submit a list of qualifications they would like to have in their next president. Members of the Board of Regents searched until they found a man to fit the list of qualifications. The faculty should like the Colleges third president. They helped the Board of Regents select him.

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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

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VIII. BUILDING TEACHER STANDARDS -The College Ii.vp1u1zl.v ltr Ser1'it'e.r HE STORY of Southwest Texas State Teachers College is a record of continual growth in antici- pating and meeting the advancing needs of an education-minded citizenry. Early Texas legislators who planned a simple Normal school where young people could in two years qualify for a lifetime teaching certificate would be surprised at the expansion of that college and the advantages now offered students. Increased demand for professional training of teachers lengthened the curriculum from two to three and then to four years. Recogni- tion of need for graduate study brought about the adoption of tl fifth year and the Board of Regents on june l5, l955, authorized work leading to the Master of Arts in teacher education. Graduate work, under the direction of a council made up of Dean of the College Alfred H. Nolle and Professors E. O. Wiley, C. S. Smith, Gates Thomas, M. L. Arnold, C. L. Key, J. Lloyd Rogers, and J. Lloyd Read, was offered for the first time in the summer of 1936. The graduate program is designed to stress particularly ad- vanced training for administration, supervision, and more effective classroom teaching. Majors are offered in Business Administration, Education, Health and Physical Education. Home Economics, Indus- trial Arts, the Social Sciences, Science and Mathematics, Language and Literature, and Music. In l957 the first Master of Arts degree was awarded to Mar- garet McClung Walker. By the summer of l950 under the impetus of increased salaries frotn the Gilmer-Aikin law and the require- ments of the Texas Education Agency in regard to elementary edu- cation, 876 graduate students were enrolled. Now under the direction of Dr. Claude Elliott, dean of Gradu- ate Studies, the Graduate Council continues to search for better ways to help prepare better teachers. Recently, to solve the critical teacher shortage in elementary education, the Graduate Council pio- neered in producing a plan whereby graduate students with a high school teaching certificate might work toward an advanced degree in elementary education. Following a trend set by many other colleges and universities the college has abandoned the idea of a compulsory thesis for each master's degree candidate. In explaining this action Dean Elliott stated: In view of the hundreds of millions of dolars which the State of Texas is now spending to bring the public schools up to a higher level of efficiency, the Graduate Council feels that it has even greater responsibility in seeing to it that the Graduate School offers a functional degree and that all non-functional courses are eliminated . . . Obviously, one pattern would not meet the needs of every student. Other phases of work also find the College serving Texas edu- cationally. For a quarter of a century the Extension Division has been carrying the campus to the public school teacher. Since 1939. when the division came under the control of Dr. Pat Norwood, director of Public Service, the Extension Division has served an average of 500 students a year, with teachers driving as far as Carrizo Springs each week, a distance of 182 miles to teach classes. Gonzales, Waelder, Elgin, Lytle, Pleasanton, Uvalde, San An- tonio, practically all towns within possible driving distance of the campus have been served by the College. During the 1948 spring semester 608 off-campus students regis- tered. more than one-third as many students as were studying in San Marcos. Yet this was only a portion of the classes that could have been organized if instructors had been available. College students enjoy one of the scenic views at the Camp- site, I25-acre Wimberley ranch given 'ro the College by former Regent Mrs. Sallie Beretta. Since September, 1945, the College has also offered courses by correspondence. It was first estimated that the demand for these would be negligible but the Correspondence Division now serves approximately 400 students each year. Correspondence courses are offered in Agriculture, Business Ad- ministration, Education, English, Physical Education, Social Sciences, and Spanish. LOOKING AHEAD Faculty members realize that building a better teaching profes- sion means becoming better .teachers themselves. It means constant work and study and examination and evaluation of work already done. The record of this faculty shows that it will not shirk the job. What, then, are our resources for 'the next fifty years? Here we have: A four million dollar plant. A choice student body of 1,600 on campus, 500 off campus. The best-equipped staff in the history of the College. An appreciative Ex-student and Alumni group, with more than 50,000 members. A cooperative spirit, dedicated to the advancement of the teach- ing profession and to the welfare of state and nation. These are the necessary ingredients for progress. These are the qualities which will continue to advance Southwest Texas State Teachers College during the next fifty years.