1959 Award Winners

Biographies below were included in the program for the year listed here and were current as of that time.

Henrietta Courtright

Teacher

Arkansas City Junior College

A Kansas mathematics teacher for thirty-one years, Miss Henrietta Courtright is currently teaching at Arkansas City Junior College. She began her teaching career in 1924 at Lincoln and Washington elementary school in Independence. Since that time, Miss Courtright has taught in high schools at Lafontaine, Coffeyville, and Arkansas City. She also taught for a year as a graduate fellow at Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg. Miss Courtright has been on the junior college faculty since1936.

A native of Independence, where she graduated from high school in 1922, Miss Courtright earned both the A.B. and M. S. degrees at Pittsburg. Since completing the master's degree requirements, she has done post graduate work at Duke University, the Teachers College of Columbia University, and the University of Kansas.

Miss Courtright is a member of numerous education and social organizations in addition to two honorary fraternities at Pittsburg, Kappa Delta Pi (scholarship, leadership, education) and Kappa Mu Epsilon (mathematics). She was awarded a National Science Foundation grant for study in mathematics at Kansas University.

Nettie Davis

Mathematics and Science Teacher

Winchester Rural High School

USD 339 Jefferson County North

This spring, Miss Nettie May Davis will complete a half century of teaching mathematics and science in Kansas. She began her career ir1 1907 at the Valley Center High School. Two years later she moved to the Horton High School where she taught until 1923, serving as principal of the junior and senior high schools during the last eight years there. She taught at Central Junior High School in Kansas City, Kansas, from 1923 until 1956, when she retired. Her retirement was short-lived, however, and in 1957 she took a teaching assignment at Winchester Rural High School, a position she still holds.

Miss Davis graduated from Valley Falls High School in 1903. She earned the A.B. degree at Washburn University in 1907. Since that time, she has done graduate work at Kansas University, Colorado University, Chicago University, Kansas City University, and Kansas State Teachers College at Pittsburg.

She is a member of various religious and educational organizations. In 1956, the yearbook at Central Junior High School was dedicated to Miss Davis, as will be the 1959 yearbook at Winchester High School.

Paul R. Dick

Principal and Superintendent

Oakley Consolidated Schools

USD 274 Oakley

In his thirty-three years as a Kansas educator, Paul R. Dick has been a teacher, coach, and administrator in five different high schools. He began his teaching career in 1926 as an instructor and coach at Gem High School. In the same capacities, he moved the next year to the Kanorado Consolidated School where he stayed until 1933. From 1933 until 1939, Mr. Dick served as coach and principal at the Englewood Consolidated School. The next six years were spent as principal of Utica Rural High School, and in 1945 he moved to his present position of high school principal and superintendent of the Oakley Consolidated Schools.

Mr. Dick graduated from Natoma High School in 1922 and received the A.B. degree in 1926 from Baker University. He earned the M.A. degree from Colorado University in 1938. Since then he has done post graduate work at Kansas State College and Kansas University.

Mr. Dick, a member of many educational organizations, served as vice president of the Kansas State Teachers Association in 1951 and president of the Kansas Association of Secondary School Principals in 1957.

Ethlyn Hamlin

English Teacher

Fort Scott High School

USD 234 Fort Scott

A high school English teacher since 1925, Miss Ethlyn Hamlin has spent all of her thirty-four teaching years at Fort Scott High School. She has taught English to all four high school classes.

A native of Fort Scott, Miss Hamlin graduated from high school there in 1919. She attended Fort Scott Junior College for two years before earning the A.B. degree at St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, in 192:3. Since that time, Miss Hamlin has done graduate work at Kansas University, Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and Colorado Teachers College at Greeley. She has attended conferences and workshops at the University of Delaware, Purdue University, Lewis and Clark College at Portland, Oregon, and Kansas State Teachers College at Pittsburg.

A member of several religious and educational organizations, Miss Hamlin has been particularly active in the American Association of University Women, having served as president of the Fort Scott branch of the organization.

Robert Harold Pool

Science Teacher

USD 495 Larned

A high-school science teacher for thirty-six years, Robert Harold Pool has taught all but one of those years at Larned High School. He taught one year at Haskell, Oklahoma.

Mr. Pool graduated from high school at Norman, Oklahoma, in 1917. He received an A.B. degree from Oklahoma University in 1921 , and a year later earned an M.A. degree in geology from that school. Mr. Pool did additional graduate work at Iowa State University and Kansas University, earning a master's degree in education in 1926.

Besides his teaching chores at Lamed, Mr. Pool is responsible for the school's activities fund and the bookkeeping entailed by the school lunch program. He is a member of the National Science Teachers Association, the Kansas Academy of Science, the Kansas State Teachers Association, the National Education Association, and the Lamed City Teachers Association. Mr. Pool is active in the Methodist Church.

Dr. Ruth Thompson

Chemistry Professor

Sterling College

Dr. D. Ruth Thompson is completing her thirty-ninth year as a professor of chemistry at Sterling College. She began her teaching career in 1912 when she taught for a year at the "Wide-A-Wake" grade school west of Chase. The next year, she taught at the Midland grade school east of Sterling. After earning a college degree, Dr. Thompson was employed at Sterling College where she has taught since.

Dr. Thompson graduated from Sterling High School in 1912. She earned the A.B. degree at Sterling in 1918 and went on to receive an M.A. degree from Kansas University in 1920. Since that time she has done post graduate work at the University of Chicago, the University of Kansas, and the University of Colorado. In 1956, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy degree by Westminster College in Pennsylvania.

Last year, Dr. Thompson was given Kansas University's highest honor - the Citation for Distinguished Service. The citation has been bestowed on only 121 of the University's graduates. Shortly after receiving the award, Dr. Thompson was featured in an article in the December, 1958, Kansas Teacher.

Dr. Thompson is a member of many religious and educational organizations.

Jane Townsend

Principal

Girard High School

USD 248 Girard

When people talk of education at Girard, the conversation eventually turns to Miss Jane Townsend. Miss Townsend has taught in or near Girard since 1906. In that year, she began her career as a teacher in a rural school. She taught from 1907 to 1909 in the fifth and sixth grades at Girard, and then moved to the high school where she taught mathematics and normal training until 1917. In 1917, Miss Townsend became principal of the high school, a position she has held since that time.

She graduated from Girard High School in 1906, and received the B.S. degree from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, in 1917. She holds master's degree; from the University of Chicago (1924) and the University of Michigan (1934). She has taken post graduate work at the University of Colorado· during most of the summers since 1934.

Born in Girard, she was honored there by a "Miss Jane Townsend Day" in 1953 in commemoration of 35 years as high school principal. A member of various educational and social organizations, Miss Townsend's name appeared in "Who's vVho in American Education" in 1953.