Before I ever got into real estate, half a century ago, I worked in education as a teacher and counselor, and I greatly enjoyed that, too. Among other things, that was an opportunity to get to know so many young people and help them get focused on what they wanted to do, at a time of increasing opportunities, in the Fifties, Sixties, and early Seventies.
After receiving my Master of Science in Education degree from Western Illinois State Teachers College in 1952, I was a high school teacher of business—a field that was commonly called “commercial education.” And it included complex matters like accounting and business management, as well as practical skills like shorthand and typing.
I liked getting to know different schools in the area, so I taught at communities like Virginia, Blandinsville, Bardolph, Springfield, Avon, and Macomb. And those schools were of different sizes, ranging from Bardolph High School, which had just fifty students, to Springfield High School, which had 2,000. And there was much to enjoy at all those places.
By 1965 I had completed my studies in counselor education at Western, which was then a rapidly growing university, and I was starting to work in that field as well. Then one day, the Macomb High School principal, C.L. Barrett, asked me if I was interested in being a counselor at our high school, and I was glad to accept his offer. It was a chance to work personally with many local students, to help them plan their future.
At that time, Macomb High School produced many young people who became successful in variety of occupations. Of course, I often dealt with seniors, and back then about seventy or eighty percent of those students were planning to attend college. So, I was glad to explore different aspects of career challenges—and sometimes help them apply for scholarships, too.
In that era, all of the educators at Macomb High School had a strong sense of purpose. And I enjoyed working with dedicated teachers like Robert Alexander (in mathematics), Burdette Graham (in agriculture), Donald Heberling (in art), Ruth Parks (in music), and David Vance (in athletics)—just to name a few. The teachers tended to stay a long time, too, for Macomb already had an appealing educational system. And those of us involved in education knew that we had firm parental support for the high school, too, in a town that been so education oriented for generations. So, it was a positive experience for us all.
Naturally, I was pleased to become aware that so many girls were considering careers, too, as well as expecting to become wives and mothers. (The Future Homemakers of America was still one of the most popular high school clubs for girls, but they were also considering roles in business, education, medicine, and other fields, so they had concerns about balancing the traditional woman’s role with other opportunities.) I greatly enjoyed exploring their views and plans with them—and in fact, by the mid-1960s I was also appointed as the Dean of Girls at Macomb High, too.
I was very engaged in my counseling work when the new high school, just south of town, was opened in 1970. So, it was naturally exciting to move to that attractive, larger, modern facility, but I have many fine memories of the high school on South Johnson Street, as do so many older residents in Macomb.
Some of us teachers used to continue studying in certain fields, too. We simply liked to learn things. And so, in the 1970s I took classes from George Potter at WIU, during the summer. And he taught not just accounting and general business but also real estate. Among other things, I always liked getting to know different adults, and real estate promoted that kind of experience. Also, I enjoyed learning about houses, including their variety and the changing aspects of home design. Beyond that, Macomb was growing in population, too, and some interesting new neighborhoods were developing. So, all of that is what drew me into yet another field.
But I greatly enjoyed my years as an educator, too, and I have always been glad that I spent more than twenty years working with young people, especially at Macomb High School.
