Category Archives: Education

Teacher and politician Lorna Herseth served as SD’s First Lady

Posted on by

South Dakota teacher Lorna Herseth served as her state’s First Lady, and later as the South Dakota Secretary of State. Photo credit: South Dakota State Historical Society

Many fine classroom teachers have also served as excellent politicians. This is certainly true of Lorna Buntrock Herseth, a teacher and politician from South Dakota.

Lorna Buntrock was born in Columbia, South Dakota, on April 5, 1909, the youngest of 11 children born to immigrants from Germany. As a young woman, she attended Northern State Teachers College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where she earned both her Bachelor’s degree and her teaching credential.

Once she completed her education, Lorna taught in public schools in Brown County. In 1936. she was elected to the position of Brown County Superintendent of Schools. She later served on the Selby School Board. She taught in both rural and urban schools around the state.

In 1937, Lorna married her college sweetheart, Ralph Herseth, after having dated for many years. The couple farmed a ranch on the east side of Sand Lake near the town of Houghton for nearly 30 years. On this farm they raised wheat, corn, and Aberdeen Angus cattle. During these years, Ralph served as a South Dakota State Senator and in 1958-1960, was South Dakota’s 21st Governor and Lorna served as the state’s First Lady from 1959 to 1961. While Ralph was Governor, the first state-wide teachers’ retirement benefit program was established.

After Ralph’s death in 1969, Lorna continued her career in politics when she was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve as the South Dakota Secretary of State. She served two terms in this position, from 1973 to 1979. As if all this were not enough, Lorna also served on the Board of Directors for the Brown County Red Cross. She also served as the State Director of the Easter Seal Society.

Lorna passed away on September 8, 1994, at the age of 85. She is interred in Houghton Cemetery in Brown County, South Dakota.

Former teacher, veteran, and Senator from Hawaii Daniel Akaka

Posted on by

Many fine educators have also served as capable politicians. One of these is former teacher and senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka.

Daniel was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 11, 1924. He was the youngest of eight children born to a father of Chinese descent and a Native Hawaiian mother. As a youngster, Daniel attended Hawaii’s prestigious Kamehameha Schools, founded specifically to provide a quality education to Native Hawaiian children. He graduated from high school in 1942.

Daniel was an American hero. He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, from 1945 to 1947. When the war ended, the US veteran used his GI bill to enroll at the University of Hawaii. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education in 1952 and his Master’s degree in 1966. After earning his teaching credential, Daniel was employed as a high school teacher in Honolulu from 1953 to 1960. He taught music, social studies, and math. In 1960 he was promoted to vice principal, and in 1969 he became a high school principal. In 1969, Daniel left public schools to work in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a chief program planner.

A multi-talented individual, the former teacher won election to the US House of Representatives in 1976, where he served a total of seven terms. In 1990, Daniel was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the US Senate which had occurred upon the death of Senator Spark Matsunaga. Later Daniel was elected to that position in his own right, and he served there until his retirement in 2013. Daniel’s career in politics spanned a total of 36 years.

While in office, Daniel served on a number of committees, including Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Energy and Natural Resources. But he is best known for his work on behalf of America’s veterans. He supported legislation to re-evaluate the wartime service records of members of the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion. These units, comprised almost entirely of Japanese American soldiers, were engaged in some of the fiercest fighting in Europe. They exhibited some of the most exemplary combat records of the entire war. Despite this, only one Asian American soldier earned the nation’s highest decoration for military valor, the Medal of Honor. Because of Daniel’s efforts, more than 20 additional Asian American veterans of World War II were awarded the Medal of Honor in 2000.

Daniel Akaka passed away after a lengthy illness on April 6, 2018, at the age of 93. To learn more about this amazing educator and politician, click on this article at Washington Post Obituary.

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was once a NYC teacher

Posted on by

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born into an aristocratic family, yet she worked as a teacher when she was a young woman and all her life she championed education for the underprivileged. Photo credit: National First Ladies Library

It is common knowledge that Eleanor Roosevelt was a popular First Lady who served our county during the presidency of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He served during the Great Depression and World War II. During that period, Eleanor worked tirelessly to advance her husband’s social and political agenda. But did you know that this great lady was a teacher before her marriage to FDR?

Eleanor Roosevelt was born into an aristocratic family in New York city. Her mother died when Eleanor was quite young, and her father was an alcoholic. As a child, she was socially and physically awkward and starved for attention. When her father also passed away, young Eleanor became a ward of her maternal grandmother.

Eleanor was educated by private tutors until she was 15 years old. Then her grandmother sent her to private finishing school, the Allenswood Academy, in England. There Eleanor flourished under the guidance of the school’s headmistress, Marie Souvestre, who encouraged social responsibility and independence for young women. When Eleanor completed her formal education at age 18, she returned to New York City. There she made her social debut in 1902, according to the customs of her social class.

After Eleanor’s debut, she shunned the social life of a debutante that her family expected her to follow. Instead, she turned her boundless energy into progressive projects that helped improve the lives and working conditions of immigrants and those living in poverty. She joined an organization known as the Junior League, and helped established a community center known as the Rivington Street Settlement House on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The center specialized in teaching life skills and vocational skills. Many of the center’s clients were children who worked long hours in the confined spaces of sweat shops. These children did not have many opportunities to engage in physical exercise and movement. To help them improve their health, Eleanor worked as a dance teacher and calisthenics instructor.

Because of her work at the Junior League, Eleanor Roosevelt found her voice as a social activist long before she became First lady. Her work at there was the start of a career in public service that extended even after she left the White House.

To learn more about this amazing historical figure, see this link at the National First Ladies Library.

William McKinley: President and former country schoolteacher

Posted on by

President William McKinley was a country schoolhouse teacher when he was a young man. Photo credit: Public domain

In my research about former residents of the White House who have also been teachers. I have been very surprised to learn just how many of them there are. For example, did you know that President William McKinley was once a teacher?

William McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio, and was raised in Poland, Ohio. When he was a youngster, education was very important to William, and he studied diligently at  the school he attended that was run by the Methodist seminary in his hometown.

After William graduated from high school, he briefly attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. However, he had to drop out because of health and financial difficulties. As the seventh child in a large family, he needed to go to work to help support his family. Like two sisters, William decided to go into teaching. He inaugurated his career as an educator as a teacher at a one-room country schoolhouse not far from the home of his parents.

In his classroom, the 17-year-old William taught 50 students of all ages and skill levels. For this work he earned $25 a month. According to the custom of the day, the neophyte educator boarded with the families of his students, although at times he walked several miles to and from school to stay at home with his parents.

William hoped to eventually earn enough money to return to college but, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, he decided to enlist in the army on the Northern side. He fought in the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, where he rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Once the war was over, William moved to Canton, Ohio, and returned to the classroom. Later, he shifted careers and went into the practiced of law. Eventually, the former teacher became the governor of Ohio, and then, in 1896, he was elected the 25th President of the United States.

“How priceless is a liberal education!” President McKinley once declared. “Our hope is in the public schools and in the university. Let us fervently pray that they may always be generously supported,” he concluded. To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this link provided by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

Former First Lady Pat Nixon was once a Business Teacher

Posted on by

Pat Nixon: The high school business teacher from Whittier, California, who became our nation’s 37th First Lady. She served from 1969 to 1974. Photo Credit: US National Archives

Many well-known political personalities were once schoolteachers. One of these is Pat Nixon, who served as our nation’s First Lady from 1969 to 1974. She was employed during the 1930s as a business teacher at Whittier Union High School in Whittier, California. In fact, Pat was working as an educator when she met her future husband, a young and ambitious city attorney named Richard Nixon.

Pat Ryan Nixon was born into a family of farmers on March 16, 1912, in Ely, Nevada. She grew up in a rural community now known Cerritos, California. Her mother died of cancer in 1924, when Pat was only 12 years old. After her mother’s death, the young girl kept house for her father and two older brothers, William, Jr., and Thomas. It was a big responsibility for such a young girl.

In spite of her challenges, Pat graduated from Excelsior High School in 1929, and then worked her way through college working a variety of odd jobs. These jobs included retail sales, pharmacy manager, typist, and telephone operator. After her high school graduation, she first attended Fullerton Junior College in Fullerton, California, and then transferred to the University of Southern California, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising, cum laude, in 1937.

In her first year of teaching, Pat Nixon earned only $180 a month, a princely sum considering the poverty in which she grew up. A pretty and popular teacher, the former Miss Ryan instructed courses in typing, bookkeeping, business principles, and stenography. On her performance evaluations, her supervisors wrote that she had a “splendid attitude toward young people,” they praised her ability to get “good results from them.” She was highly respected for her careful balance of friendliness, high expectations, and strict classsroom discipline. Her students remembered her fondly, writes daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower in a detailed and personal biography published in 1986. The book is called Pat Nixon: the Untold Story, and is available on amazon.com.

In the political arena, Pat served her country as the wife of the Vice President from 1953 to 1961, and then as First Lady during her husband’s presidency, which spanned the years of 1969 to 1974. Her major platform as First Lady was to promote volunteerism. Through this platform, she encouraged Americans to address social problems at the local level through volunteering at civic organizations, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers. Like the First Lady, many teachers are known for emphasizing the importance of citizenship.

Pat Nixon passed away on June 22, 1993, in Park Ridge, New Jersey. She was 81 years old. She is interred next to her husband at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.