1973 Award Winners

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

Mildred Barber

Eighth Grade English Teacher

Concordia Junior High School

USD 333 Concordia

One of the most unusual facts of Mildred Barber's career concerns the various standpoints from which she has been in touch with education. Currently an eighth grade English instructor at Concordia Junior High School, Mrs. Barber has spent most of her life in education, serving in many capacities.

A native of Osborne County, Mrs. Barber graduated from Alton High School in 1924. She received her bachelors degree in 1928 from the University of Kansas and has attended Marymount College, Kansas State Teachers College and Cloud County Community College.

In the fall of 1928 she was signed as a high school teacher in Alton where she taught all grades of English and a class of world history. She kept this position until she married three years later.

She did no further teaching until the fall of 1954, when she accepted a position in the Enterprise rural school, District 10. There she spent six years teaching all eight grades. In 1960, Mrs. Barber became the eighth grade English teacher in Concordia, a responsibility she has since held.

As a parent of two children, Mrs. Barber was active in the Parent-Teacher Association at the local, state and national levels. In 1947, she was elected state president of the PTA, an office she held for three years. In addition to work on state aid, Mrs. Barber was a member of the National PT A Board of Managers.

With equal enthusiasm Mrs. Barber stayed active in local educational matters. For 12 years, she served as a member of the local Board of Education and for eight years was vice president of the board. As a board member, she was chosen to serve on the National School Lunch Committee during the Eisenhower Administration, and was a representative on a joint committee of the National Education Association and the National PTA from 1960-65.

In regard to her teaching, one friend said: "Mrs. Barber has no peer as a teacher. If one can say a teacher is born, Mrs. Barber is such a teacher."

Dr. Elton W. Cline

Associate Professor of Chemistry

Kansas State College of Pittsburg

Affectionately known as the "Mr. Wizard of Kansas," Elton W. Cline has done more than anyone to bring living chemistry to the high school and college classroom, according to a colleague. Currently associate professor of chemistry at Kansas State College of Pittsburg, Cline's use of classroom demonstrations and teaching aids are known throughout the state and the nation.

Cline has presented his science programs to elementary and secondary schools in a four-state area for many years, and from 1960 to 1964 served as Visiting Scientist to high schools in the eastern third of Kansas. He also served as director of the Visiting Scientist Program from 1964-67.

A native of Northbranch, Kansas, Cline received his bachelors degree in 1932 from Asbury College, Wilmore, Ky., and his masters degree in 1946 from Kansas State College of Pittsburg. He has also attended the Universities of Kentucky and Wyoming.

He began his teaching career in a rural school in Jewell County. He has also taught at Friends Academy, Haviland, and in high schools in Sylvan Grove, Holton, Ellis and Pittsburg. He joined the KSC faculty in 1956.

Cline is a member of the American Chemical Society; national, state and local chapters of the National Education Association; Kansas Academy of Science; Southeast Kansas Teachers Credit Union, and Lions International.

He is also active in the First Presbyterian Church as superintendent of the Sunday School, an elder, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the College of Emporia.

A sports enthusiast, Cline has served as tennis coach at both the high school and college levels.

One former student recalled Cline as being "an individual who didn't teach, he educated." His ability to make science relevant and interesting has made a lasting impression on hundreds of students as well as colleagues and visiting instructors.

Marie Hieger

Business Education Instructor

El Dorado High School

USD 490 El Dorado

"Successful teachers and teaching come as a result of constant hard work. No teacher teaches and no student learns just because someone in authority is in the classroom," is Marie Hieger's philosophy of teaching.

And hard work is the main endeavor of the business education instructor at El Dorado High School. In addition to teaching six classes at the high school, Miss Hieger has been chairman of the business education department since 1970, a sponsor of Kayettes for eight years, has taught a second grade Sunday School class for the past eight years, and is active in professional organizations.

A native of Wamego, Miss Hieger received her bachelors degree from Marymount College in 1959. She attended summer sessions at Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, and received her masters degree in 1963. She has done additional work at KSTC, Wichita State University and Utah State University.

Miss Hieger began teaching at El Dorado in 1963, and although she had only four years teaching experience, she was described as a "veteran" her first day. Her previous teaching experience includes two years at Wilson High School and two years at Cherryvale High School.

She is past president and a candidate for state secretary of Delta Kappa Gamma, national honor society for teachers; a member of the Kayette Leadership Training Camp staff for the past three years; past treasurer of the American Association of University Women; a member of national, state and local chapters of the National Education Association; and a member of the St. John's Catholic Church and Altar Society.

She is also a member of the National Business Education Association, the Mountains Plains Business Education Association; Catholic Business Education Association, Kansas Business Education Association, and Delta Pi Epsilon honorary business fraternity.

As one colleague put it: "She is certainly not an 'eight to four' teacher."

Anna Hurty

Seventh and Eighth Grade Social Science

Central Junior High

USD 308 Hutchinson

To her former pupils, Anna Hurly earned the title of "Master Teacher" long ago. A teacher in the Hutchinson community for 43 years, Miss Hurty is admired and respected by former and present students as well as colleagues.

She was born in Hutchinson and received a diploma from Hutchinson Junior College in 1930. She received her bachelors degree in 1946 from Colorado State College and her masters degree in 1955 from the Teachers College of Columbia University. She has also attended Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, Colorado College, Wichita State University and Southeastern State College, Durant, Oklahoma.

In her 43 years of teaching in Hutchinson, Miss Hurty taught six years in two rural schools, both on the outskirts of Hutchinson, and the remaining 37 years in three Hutchinson public schools-Allen Elementary School; Graber Elementary School, and currently at Central Junior High.

At the junior high she teaches seventh and eighth grade social science and has been the instructor of a special slow learners class for the past 10 years. One colleague says of Miss Hurty: "To the low-ability or low-achieving student, Miss Hurty gives time, patience and love. The personal interest she shows each child and her efforts to work with the parents is very effective."

She is a member of national, state and local chapters of National Education Association; Delta Kappa Gamma, national honorary society for women teachers; Hutchinson English Council; Hutchinson Community Concert Association, Hutchinson Travel Club, Lutheran Church Women, and a life member of the Parent-Teacher Association.

She is widely-traveled and an avid photographer. She has visited 49 states and has made four trips abroad . She uses her travelogues in her classes as well as presenting them to many organizations.

A typical comment on her slide presentations is: "I took this picture because I thought it would of special interest to my students."

Rachel Leist

First Grade Teacher

Winfield Scott Elementary School

USD 234 Fort Scott

Appreciative parents describe Rachel Leist as "the kind of teacher (and person) to whom any parent would want to entrust his beginning first grader."

Mrs. Leist has been the first grade teacher at Winfield Scott Elementary School in Fort Scott for eight years and has been a teacher in Bourbon County since 1931. She taught in Humphrey, Gish and Garland rural schools and was kindergarten and second grade teacher at Eugene Ware Elementary School in Ft. Scott.

Born in Richard, Mo., she moved with her family to Garland in 1925. She attended Southwestern Missouri State College and Ft. Scott Junior College and received her bachelors degree in 1953 and her masters degree in 1958 from Kansas State College of Pittsburg. She also continually goes back to school to take graduate work to become better acquainted with modern methods.

In the summer of 1959 she was kindergarten supervisor in the Horace Mann Laboratory School at KSC and for the past two summers has taught in the Summer Enrichment program at Winfield Scott.

Mrs. Leist is active in educational organizations, being a member of the Bourbon County Teachers Association, the Fort Scott Teachers Association, American Association of University Women and Delta Kappa Gamma, international honorary for women teachers. She is also active in community affairs as a member of the First United Methodist Church and Wesleyan Service Guild, and in Masonic affiliated orders.

During her 36 years of teaching Mrs. Leist says she has been richly rewarded through the love so many children in her life have shared with her. She has that special personality and dedication which is so necessary if a child is to get that all-important start in the first grade.

Allen L. Unruh

Principal

Eugene Field Elementary School

USD 290 Ottawa

Allen Unruh is termed by his friends and associates as not only a principal and education promoter, but a community leader and promoter as well.

The principal at Eugene Field Elementary School in Ottawa since 1959, Unruh is active in many community affairs, and was selected the 1971 outstanding citizen by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce.

He is a member of the Ottawa Kiwanis Club and has been active in the Kiwanis-sponsored summer camping program for the past 10 years. One associate attributed the success of the program in large measure to Unruh's personal effort and the great deal of time he devotes to the camp.

He is also a member of the Franklin County Community Development program and was influential in bringing the city manager form of government to Ottawa in 1970. Other community activities include Boy Scouts, the Head Start Program, Reading Circle Primary Book Selection Committee, Franklin County Mental Health Clinic Board of Trustees, and the First United Methodist Church, where he serves as a church school teacher and has served as lay leader and chairman of the official governing body. His family was selected by their congregation as "Family of the Year" in 1963.

Unruh is also active in educational associations such as the Ottawa Education Association, the Kansas Education Association, the National Education Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the Kansas Association of Elementary School Principals.

An Oklahoma native, Unruh received his bachelors degree from Bethel College in 1950 and his masters degree in 1956 from Western State College, Gunnison, Colo. He has also attended Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, and the University of Kansas.

His 17-year-old son summed up his qualifications as a Master Teacher. "I think my father is an adaptable, diplomatic, jolly-good fellow type master educator with coaching ability and administrative talent."

Marjorie Vieux

Librarian

Atwood Grade School

USD 105 Rawlins County

"Happiness is having a librarian who cares," say the students at Atwood Grade School about Marjorie Vieux, librarian there since 1961.

Mrs. Vieux, through long, hard work, has transformed a one-room basement library of 600 books into an award-winning media center of 8,400 books. The library received a grant in 1971 to become a demonstration media center, one of two in Kansas.

Mrs. Vieux, a native of Greensburg, received a teaching certificate from the Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, in 1930 and taught in rural schools in Wilmore and Brenham and in the Greensburg Grade School in the 1930's. In 1935 she married and deterred her teaching career for almost 25 years.

During this time she was wife, homemaker, mother and an active community worker in Atwood . She was a member of the Atwood Grade School Board and the State Citizens Committee for Educational Survey. She has always been an active member of her church, the First Christian Church, as a member of the Women's Fellowship, a member of the choir and organ accompanist, and a Sunday School teacher. She was also active in her four sons' school activities, acting as chaperone and accompanist for student music performances.

After the death of her husband in 1961 she returned to her career accepting the position as librarian for the grade school. She returned to school and received her bachelors degree with honors in 1966 after attending summer sessions ai KSTC.

Mrs. Vieux has made her library a place of warmth and friendship besides a place of learning and is described as having an "unusual ability to interest children in reading good literature."

Parents appreciate her: "Marjorie Vieux is solely the reason for my children's interest in the library and reading."

And students appreciate her: "Love is having a librarian who cares."