By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer
Members of the GISD Educational Foundation met Friday for the organization’s annual alumni and GISD educator Hall of Fame luncheon.
This year is the first year organizers held the luncheon in the new Gainesville High School.
A good crowd was on hand for the event which included the induction of four GISD educators and four alumni to the district’s Hall of Fame.
Honorees received plaques and guests had the chance to learn a little about the lives of each of the honored individuals.
City councilman and former GISD School Board president, Charles Draper, was emcee for the event.
He stepped in after First Baptist Church pastor, Dr. Mark Denison, was unable to attend the luncheon due to an illness in his family.
Dr. Clinton McPherson is one of the newest alumni honorees.
A native of Gainesville, McPherson once worked for the Daily Register as a paperboy.
He said he didn’t have to think twice about taking the part-time job in the early 1930s.
“They needed a route boy, and I hired out. I was about 12 years old,” he said.
McPherson said he delivered papers to about 120 customers.
“We’d get out of school at 3:30. The papers were printed by 4. We’d pick them up, fold them, put them in a sack and go,” he said.
His route lasted two hours and took him down Lindsay Street, past the high school toward Rice Avenue.
McPherson said he and other route boys made fairly good money.
“The thing about it was we were making more than some people who worked at hard labor,” he said.
The paperboys made $4.50 to $5 per week back when a new pair of shoes cost $1.50.
But shoes weren’t the only thing the boys spent their money on.
“You could get day-old donuts at the Snow White Bakery, two for a nickel,” McPherson said.
Joe M. Leonard, Jr., a member of the Leonard family who founded the Register and whose influence on local media, including broadcast continues today, introduced his friend, McPherson at the luncheon.
Leonard said McPherson’s father was a Santa Fe Railroad conductor who was determined to see his son in a profession other than the railroad. He wanted Clinton to go to the college.
He also taught his son wine making, a skill which he later employed during his career as a chemist and a professor at Texas Tech University.
Leonard said Frank helped prove that Texas grapes could be grown and processed into wines which rival the best California labels.
When McPherson graduated from Newsome Doughtery High School in 1936, he attended Gainesville Junior College and later Texas Tech before serving as a bombardier and navigator during World War II.
His wife, Clara McPherson, said the synopsis of her husband’s life was only a glimpse into the talents and accomplishments of the man she loves.
Seven other individuals were inducted into the hall of fame Friday.
Writer Tom Kennedy, himself a distinguished GHS graduate and hall of famer, said he wrote the script for the ceremony under difficult conditions.
“I wrote the scripts in darkness. There is no power in Houston,” Kennedy told the crowd, alluding to the lingering damage in Houston after Hurricane Ike struck the area in early September.
Kennedy talked about two inductees he knew personally — Coach and shop teacher, Horace McCain and coach and principal Bertie Lee Gibbs.
Of McCain, Kennedy the coach believed in paddling students on their birthdays.
“He never got me because my birthday was in the summer,” Kennedy said, meeting some laughter.
He said McCain was a talented shop teacher who once got a job as the Head of Industrial Arts at the Fort Worth Independent School District.
Fortunately for Gainesville students, things didn’t go as planned.
“He was gone two days, and he came back,” Kennedy said.
McCain just didn’t want to leave Gainesville, and he was welcomed back.
“I asked him once why loves Gainesville and he said, “It’s everything that you want,’” Kennedy recalled.
Another Gainesville graduate and Hall of Fame inductee was the late Bertie Lee Gibbs.
Gibbs, Kennedy said, also believed a paddling could curb student misbehavior.
Kennedy said he recalled sitting in Coach Gibbs’ gym class and “Wondering where does he keep his paddle?”
He said Gibbs found honor in everything he did from teaching football players T-formation blocking techniques to working as an longtime GISD administrator.
Patsy Wilson was the next hall of fame honoree.
A 1965 GHS graduate as well as a talented writer, Wilson always knew she wanted to be a teacher, said Shelia Colwell.
“She taught English, journalism and Spanish and found a calling in library services,” Colwell noted, adding that Wilson spent 26 years as Director of Library Services at North Central Texas College before retiring.
She now serves on the NCTC board of regents.
The next inductee was Jo Kennedy.
Carol Ann Hess, spoke of her former teacher saying she remembers attending school when open windows were the only form of air conditioning and teachers taught their students good manners and the value of hard work.
“She encouraged the development of all our talents,” Hess — a retired teacher — said of Kennedy.
Hess also spoke about inductee Sue Cartwright of the class of 1973.
Like many other educators, Hess said Cartwright respected her teachers and isn’t afraid of a challenge.
“She likes the hard jobs,” Hess said.
Cartwright is an award-winning special education teacher in Colorado who “develops a plan for every child’s learning style,” she said.
Most who attended the luncheon would probably agree with Hess’ assessment of those devote their lives to teaching. Hess said, “A part of every good teacher remains with her students forever,” Hess said.
Next was Wally Cullum, a 1955 graduate of GHS.
Cullum was an Eagle Scout who wanted to be a geologist, Cliff Gibbs told the crowd.
“He got in the ROTC at SMU and wound up in the Navy as a jet pilot. He was stationed, for a time, in Iceland,” Gibbs said.
After a distinguished career, Cullum retired and joined the boards of many local organizations including the Cooke County Heritage Society, the municipal airport board, the GISD board of education and the Frank Buck Zoo board.
Gainesville Junior High choir director Susan Beall introduced inductee Dave Tanner, joking about the musician’s “noteworthy” achievements.
Tanner returns each year for concerts to benefit the GISD Foundation.
A popular entertainer and a talented musician, Tanner has countless commercial and movie credits. He has performed at concerts, parties, receptions and religious gatherings.
He entertains presidents and other heads of state and once worked with Frank Sinatra.
Yet Tanner is “still a down to earth Gainesville boy,” Beall said.
