Fayetteville Public Education Foundation names Hall of Honor inductees

FAYETTEVILLE -- Four inductees will join the public schools Hall of Honor this year.

The Fayetteville Public Education Foundation named Mary "Faye" Jones, James Hunt, Peggy Taylor Lewis and George Spencer as the hall's newest members. They will join 75 previous inductees, many of whom were at Thursday's announcement luncheon at the high school.

Formal induction will be at a ceremony in October.

The foundation has used money raised from the ceremony to award grants to teachers for 22 years. Superintendent John L Colbert said Fayetteville wouldn't be one of the best schools in the state without people such as the inductees.

Jones, who is from Elkins, was an educator at Fayetteville Public Schools for nearly 40 years and was one of the first kindergarten teachers in the district.

She began her teaching career at Root Elementary School in 1974 where she taught until becoming principal at Bates Elementary School in 1997. When Bates closed in 2000, Jones became principal of Root where she served until she retired in 2009.

She served as a district strategic planning facilitator, professional development coordinator and kindergarten coordinator, all while continuing to teach half the day.

She has stayed active in the Fayetteville community, including serving on the steering committee campaign for Economic Opportunity Agency Children's House and serving on the EOA board.

"I loved what I did all those years," Jones said. "I read somewhere that something like only 18 percent of people are thoroughly satisfied with what they did. I would fit into that."

Many of those in attendance Thursday recalled having Hunt as their dentist and the quiet service he provided to the district and community. Hunt was a 1952 Fayetteville graduate and established the first pediatric dental practice in Fayetteville in 1959.

In 1967, Hunt helped start the Fayetteville Youth Dental Program at the high school and, over the years, volunteered many professional hours to provide screenings and care for thousands of low-income district students. The program continues with the help of volunteers.

"Some men claim to be self-made men, but there is no such thing. I look back, and so many people had a hand in everything we were able to do," he said.

Hunt continued to practice in Fayetteville and Springdale until 1990. He went as a medical missionary to Nigeria through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Association and then continued with trips to Togo, Birkina Faso, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and Gambia.

He retired from practice in 2015.

Lewis was one of seven black students to integrate Fayetteville High School in the fall of 1954 -- the same year as the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1956, she and her classmate Preston Lackey were the first black students to graduate from the school.

She is a trailblazer, Colbert said. She went on to earn an early education degree from the former Westark College in Fort Smith. Lewis started teaching at Head Start in Van Buren in 1966 and retired as its director.

The Class of 1956 started the Taylor-Lackey Keystone Fund in 2006 to commemorate Lewis and the late Lackey and to support teacher grants for projects aimed at serving at-risk students or cultural diversity at the high school.

Two Fayetteville High graduates have narrated Lewis' story of integration: Charles Y. Alison in "A Brief History of Fayetteville Arkansas" and Julianne Lewis in "Civil Obedience: An Oral History of School Desegregation in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1954-1965."

Spencer served as a chemistry teacher in the district for three decades before retiring in 2016.

He was widely respected by his students and colleagues for setting a high standard in the classroom and his willingness to do whatever it took to help each student meet that standard, Alan Wilbourn, school district spokesman, said at Thursday's lunch.

Spencer was honored as a Distinguished High School Mentor by the University of Arkansas in 2011. He died in December as a result of complications from a fall while hiking in the Ozarks.

NW News on 08/03/2018