University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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JAMES YADKIN JOYNER THE editors take genuine pleasure in dedicating this number of the Yackety i Yack to Hon. James Yadkin Joyner, State Superintendent of Public In- struction for North Carolina. If University life, during the first decade following its re-opening in 1875, is especially characterized by any one thing, it is the pronounced trend of thought among the students of that period towards the righteousness of public school education as a State policy and the profession of teaching as an inviting field of public service. Among the alumni of this first decade. Mr. Joyner stands pre-eminent for good works in the several departments of public education, having served his people not only as principal of a private school, but as a public school teacher, county superintendent of public schools, city superintendent of schools, con- ductor of Teachers ' Institutes, college professor, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. It is with pride, then, that his Alma Mater gives this brief story of his life and service. Mr. Joyner was born in Yadkin county, August 7th. 1862. His parents were John and Sallie Wooten Joyner, the former being of German and English descent, and the latter being of English and Welsh parentage. Left an orphan when he was not more than one year old, he was cared for by his grand-father. Council Wooten, Esq., until he was ten years of age, and then upon the death of his grandfather, he w-as taken into the home of his uncle and aunt. Mr. and ? [rs. S. T- Wooten who gave him the tender care of loving parents. After preparation for college at La Grange Academy, Mr. Joyner entered the University in 1878 and graduated three years later with the degree of A.B. After graduation he taught for three years as Principal of La Grange Academy and for two years of this period he acted as Superintendent of Schools for Lenoir county thus receiving valuable experimental knowledge bearing on many questions of popular education which, later on, he was to be called on to solve as the trusted leader of our State ' s educational system. He next taught success- fully for one year in the Graded Schools of Winston, after which he read law at Greensboro under Dick and Dillard. and upon receiving his license, practiced his profession at Goldsboro from 1886 to 1889. In 1889 he was elected Superin- tendent of the Goldsboro Graded Schools, succeeding Dr. E. A. Alderman who had been appointed State Teachers ' Institute Conductor. His four years service in Goldsboro was of practical value in fitting him for the great work in which he is to-day engaged. In this service he had fine