Many times talented educators serve their country valiantly, and also distinguish themselves in the political arena. Such is the case with Alexander Kerr Craig, a teacher from Claysville, Pennsylvania, who is also a Civil War veteran, and was elected to the US House of Representatives.

Alexander was born near Claysville, Pennsylvania, on February 1, 1828. As a young boy, he attended local common schools and was educated by a private tutor. At the age of sixteen, he became a teacher, conducting classes during the winter months and subsequently working as a principal in Claysville public schools. He also studied law.

In February, 1865, after the Civil War broke out, Alexander enlisted in the Eighty-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. After the completion of his service, he returned to Claysville, where he resumed his career as an educator by serving as school director and justice of the peace.

Alexander was elected as a Democrat to the 52nd US Congress, where he served until he passed away July 29, 1892, at the age of 64. He is buried in Claysville Cemetery.

Many admirable individuals who serve their communities as politicians have first established themselves in the profession of teaching. Such is the case of Joseph Aull, an exceptional educator from Missouri who was elected four times to his state’s House of Representatives.

Joe Aull was born on July 14, 1948, in Kansas City, Missouri. Following his 1966 graduation from Lexington High School in Lexington, Missouri, he enrolled in Westminster College in Fulton,  Missouri, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1970. Joe then enrolled in Central Missouri State University, where he completed the requirements for his Masters in Education in 1975 and earned certification as an Education Specialist in 1987.

Joe worked diligently as an educator for 34 years in the Lexington and Marshall school districts, serving in a variety of positions including classroom teacher, coach, principal, and school district superintendent. He also served as the president of the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA).

This accomplished educator was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in November, 2004, defeating Republican Kevin Begley. Representative Aull was re-elected when he ran unopposed in 2006, 2008, and 2010. Term limits prevented him from running again in 2012. While in the Missouri House, Joe served on the Joint Committee on Education, and the Committees for Elementary and Secondary Education, Agriculture Policy, Emerging Issues in Animal Agriculture, and Rural Development.

Upon leaving political service, Joseph Aull accepted a position with Wentworth Military Academy and College, a private high school and two-year college, as their high school principal and vice president of academic affairs. The institution is located in Lexington, Missouri. Joe’s father, Bill Aull, graduated from Wentworth in 1935.

Joe Aull and his wife, Candee, are the parents of five children.

Many remarkable teachers blend their interests in teaching with an interest in politics. Such is certainly the case with Nancy Cook, a high school vocational education teacher who was also a tireless worker for women’s suffrage and other political causes dear to her heart.

Nancy was born in Massena, New York, on August 26, 1884. After her graduation from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1912. There she became an avid supporter of woman’s suffrage and campaigned for legislation to protect women, to abolish child labor, and to secure world peace.

After her graduation from college, Nancy accepted her first teaching position in Fulton, New York, where she taught art and handicrafts to high school students from 1913 to 1918. It was here that she ran into fellow Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who was also a teacher of arts and handicrafts at the school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together.

During World War I, Nancy and Marion became active doing volunteer work for the Liberty Loan Drive and the Red Cross. As Marion remarked after the war, they both “really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy.” In 1918, Nancy and Marion traveled to London, England, to work in the Endell Street Military Hospital., a facility staffed entirely by women. There they scrubbed floors and performed whatever other chores were needed. Nancy would, with less than two weeks of training, begin to make artificial limbs for veterans that had lost an arm or a leg in the conflict.

Women earned the right to vote while Nancy and Marion were abroad. Upon their return to the United States, Nancy accepted a job as the executive secretary of the Women’s Division of the State Democratic Committee, a position she held for nineteen years. She was key to the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1927, Nancy, Marion, and Eleanor Roosevelt purchased a small, private school for girls in New York City they called the Todhunter School. The school provided primary and secondary education, emphasizing art, music, and drama, as well as a college preparatory curriculum. Todhunter combined traditional testing and grading standards with progressive teaching methods.

Nancy and Marion were very good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Together, the three women built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of FallKill Creek in Dutchess County, New York. Nancy and Marion lived there full-time, and Eleanor often visited. Nancy, who was an expert woodworker, made all the furniture for the home. The trio established Val-Kill Industries with the goal of producing fine hand-made heirloom furniture/. More importantly, by doing so, they were acting on a larger social goal of providing a second income to local farming people in rural Hyde Park in order to keep them from migrating away to city jobs.

When Eleanor Roosevelt committed herself to redeveloping Arthurdale, West Virginia, she asked Nancy to work with the subsistence homestead program. Nancy and the First Lady oversaw the interior needs of each Arthurdale house, while Nancy temporarily administered the furniture and woodworking projects of Arthurdale’s Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association.

Nancy Cook, chalkboard champion and suffragist, passed away on August 16, 1962.

Many talented educators have also made a name for themselves in the political arena. Such is certainly the case for Chester Merle Blalock, better known as Chet Blaylock, a history teacher and state senator from Montana.

Chet was born on Novembr 13, 1924, in Joliet, Montana. He served his country well as a member of the US Navy during World War II. After the war, this heroic veteran earned his bachelor’s degree in history in 1951 and his master’s degree in education in 1957, both from the University of Montana. He then worked as a teacher and school administrator for over thirty years, until his retirement in 1991.

During his long career in education, Chet served as a delegate to the Montana State Constitutional Convention in 1972, and as a member of the Montana State Senate from Laurel, Montana. In 1996, he became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Montana against incumbent Marc Racicot. Unfortunately, on October 23, 1996, on his way to a debate with his opponent less than two weeks before the election, the former educator passed away of a heart attack at Deer Lodge, Montana. He was cremated and his ashes interred at Rockvale Cemetery in Rockvale, Montana.