HOPE – The six honorees of the 2019 Hope Public Schools Educator Hall of Fame gave approximately two centuries of combined service to public education in the Hope Public Schools.
The late Edith Brown, Beryl Henry, James H. Jones, as well as Mrs. Ruth Flowers Love, and George and Alice Straughter will be inducted into the second class of the HPS Educator Hall of Fame in ceremonies at Hammons Stadium on Sept. 20 prior to the Hope-Prescott football season home opener.
The six educators will be honored with a public reception from 9:30-11 a.m. Sept. 20 in the MAC conference room at Hope High School, and the public is encouraged to attend.
Induction ceremonies for the six educators will be held at 6:30 p.m. on the 50-yard line at Hammons Stadium on the HHS campus that same evening, weather permitting. Any change in venue or times due to inclement weather will be announced on HPS social media and local radio.
Four of the honorees served in administrative capacities in the Hope Public Schools and all of them served as classroom teachers during extended periods or throughout their careers in public education.
Mrs. Edith Brown and Beryl Henry represent women who have served as educator/administrators in the Hope schools, with Brown beginning as a classroom teacher in Texas before being named the first principal of the Brookwood Elementary School, later renamed Edith Brown Elementary School upon her retirement. Ms. Henry was the second woman in Arkansas history to serve as superintendent of schools in a public-school system in the state, guiding the district through the construction of the original Hope High School campus in 1931. She was honored as the namesake of Beryl Henry Elementary School upon its completion in 1967.
James H. Jones, a graduate of Hope High School, became the third superintendent of the HPS, guiding the district through financial shortfalls during the Great Depression, teacher shortages during World War II, and the advent of school desegregation in Hope.
Ruth Flowers Love taught typing, keyboarding, bookkeeping, accounting, choir and American history, at the historic Henry C. Yerger campus and at Hope High School, prior to her retirement.
And, George and Alice Straughter, both graduates of the H. C. Yerger High School, went on to marry and remain in Hope to teach for a combined 63 years. George Straughter also served as a coach at Yerger High School, and later became a counselor for eight years at Hope High School, after teaching math there for 15 years.