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| Elbert Plummer Pearce Jr 1 | |
| Birth: | 3 Oct 1916 in Hamlet,Richmond County,North Carolina |
| Death: | 18 Jun 1993 in Greensboro,Guilford County,North Carolina |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | Elbert Plummer Pearce Sr b. 28 Apr 1878 in Centerville,Franklin County,North Carolina |
| Mother: | Glennie Alma Maske b. 23 Nov 1892 in Union County,North Carolina |
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| Nickname: E P |
| Burial: Westminster Gardens,Greensboro,Guilford County,North Carolina |
| Residence: Greensboro,Guilford County,North Carolina |
| Social Security Number: 237-22-8452 1 |
| Changed: 22 Jan 2003 14:29:01 |
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Individual:
E.P. Pearce Jr., who led the Guilford County school system through
desegregation and other major changes in his 19 years as schoolsuperintendent, died Friday. He was 76.
Pearce, a Greensboro resident, died at Friends Home in Greensboro, where hehad spent the last several weeks. He had suffered a stroke about a yearago.
Pearce spent 30 years with the Guilford County schools.
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Pearce Gets A Surprise At Reception
BY SHERRY JOHNSON Dally News Staff Writer
E.P. Pearce Jr., superintendent of the Guilford County schools, was on familiar ground Sunday afternoon: the board room of the system'sadministration building.
This time, though, he was able to forget about tax dollars and teacher pay, testing and truancy, and just relax and enjoy his surroundings.
Pearce, who will retire as superintendent June 30, was the guest of honor at a reception Sunday that blended many of the elements of a weddingreception and a family reunion.
The open house, financed by the county parent/teacher groups and staffed by volunteering school personnel, featured classical piano selections,candlelight, spicy Orange punch and catered candies and cake squares. Therows of omnipresent metal chairs, the mark of an impending board meeting,were replaced with tables covered by white linen and even a Victorianchair.
Principals and teachers, retired or still working, stood in the informal receiving line with administrators and school board members. AliceArmfield, principal of Millis Road School, introduced guests to Pearce'sbrother and sister, to his wife, Sarah, and then to the retiringsuperintendent himself.
Evon Dean, chairman of the county school board, traded her seat of authority temporarily Sunday for a punch ladle.
Pearce, who sported a white carnation in his lapel, flexed his right hand and said he couldn't estimate how many hands he had shaken since thereception began at 2 p.m. By 4 o'clock, however, the guest book showedmore than 250 signatures, many representing couples.
"This is the first time we've been able to have to have the whole family together in a long time," Pearce said with a wide smile as one of hisgrandchildren cut a somersault on the carpeted floor.
As a special surprise, the committee working to honor Pearce, enlisted the help of Mrs. Pearce and connived to bring in his son Maj. EdwinPearce and family, who have been stationed with the U.S. Air Force inColorado. It had been two years since the Pearces had spent time withthis part of their family.
The superintendent was lured to the regional airport on the pretext of letting grandchildren who live in this area watch the airplanes. He wasabout to leave when he spotted his son leaving the plane.
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E.P. Pearce Jr. was born in Hamlet, North Carolina where his father was a farmer; dairying, pecans, dewberries. He graduated from high school inHamlet; attended Wake Forest College in Wake Forest, North Carolina,where he was head of the senior class; and earned a graduate degree fromUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught school in Mt.Pleasant and Durham, North Carolina.
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EP graduated from Hamlet High School, Wake Forest Colege, with post graduate work at UNC, Chapel Hill. He married Sarah Alexander ofCharlotte, NC and had four children. He served with the US Navy in WWII;was Principal of Sanford High School, Sanford, NC; Superintendent ofGuilford County Schools until his retirement in 1978; was a Deacon,Sunday School Teacher; and served on key committees at the First BaptistChurch, Greensboro. He made his home in Greensboro until his death June18, 1993; interment in Westminster Garden Cemetery, Greensboro.
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The first of four children born to Elbert Plummer Pearce and Glennie Maske, Elbert Plummer Pearce, Jr. was born in Richmond County on October3, 1916. He was named for his father, but called "E P" He and hissiblings grew up on the Ideal Farm Dairy, east of Hamlet, The dairy was acomplete operation-feed production, care of the herd, and route deliveryof the milk They also had the contract to furnish milk to the railroaddining cars While in their teens, the boys took turns getting up duringthe night to "milk the trains" The Pearce property also contained peachorchards and 27 acres of dewberry vines E P said that he grew up like"Brier' Rabbit in the Briar Patch"
After completing public school in Hamlet, E P attended Wake Forest College, becoming President of the Senior Class and graduating in 1938 Hebegan his teaching career at Mt. Pleasant High School, enrolling soon inthe graduate program in Education at UNC-CH during the summer He metSarah Alexander of Charlotte, NC, who was enrolled in a graduate programin Health and Physical Education, and they were married in 1941.
E P taught mathematics and was Dean of Boys at E. K Poe High School, Durham, NC, in 1940-42. He received his Master's Degree in Education atthe conclusion of the summer session in 1942 and became an instructor inmathematics at UNC-CH that fall. After a stint in the Navy during WWII,he returned to public education in an administrative capacity. Afterthree years as Principal of Sanford High School (1946-49), he joined thestaff of the Guilford County Schools as Director of Instruction He becameSuperintendent in 1959.
E. P. took an active part in Baptist denominational work, in the Greensboro Civitan Club, and in professional educational organizations.He retired as Superintendent of the Guilford County Schools in 1978,after 42 years in public education. He died June 18, 1993, and is buriedin Westminster Gardens, Greensboro, NC.
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The Guilford County Schools:
A History. By John Batchelor.
Page 107
In July, Superintendent Idol announced that the State Board of Education had authorized a Director of Instructional Services of the GuilfordCounty schools. H. G. Waters, veteran principal of Rankin School, waschosen but refused the job. It went instead to a 33-year-old educatorfrom Sanford, E. P. Pearce, Jr. Pearce held a bachelor's degree fromWake Forest and a master's from the University of North Carolina (ChapelHill). He was a navy veteran. For the past three years, he had beenprincipal of Sanford High School.
Page 113
Teachers in Guilford County began to see new developments in curriculum following the employment of E. P. Pearce, Jr., in 1949. The basicacademic subjects continued to be taught, of course, but the countyschools began to devote additional attention to vocational education.
Pearce and the instructional supervisors received cooperation from the Classroom Teachers Association in an effort to improve instruction. In1950, Dr. McCartha announced plans for C.T.A.-sponsored discussiongroups, dealing with student promotion, grading, and extracurricularactivities. Audiovisual materials were the major news for 1950, though. E. P. Pearce showed off a central film library to serve all the countyschools. Special emphasis had been given to science films.
Page 131
Eugene Idol reached his sixty-fifth birthday in 1956. The County Board asked the State Retirement Board for permission to retain him for anothertwo-year term, and permission was granted.
Idol asked for a five-week vacation in June 1958. The board granted it and appointed Assistant Superintendent E. P. Pearce as actingsuperintendent. The newspaper published rumors of Idol's impendingresignation. At the February 7 board meeting, Eugene Idol asked to berelieved of his duties on June 30. The board agreed and announced itsintention to make E. P. Pearce, Jr., the new superintendent.
Page 132
CHAPTER V
Consolidation and Desegregation:
The Administration of E. P. Pearce, Jr.,
1959-1978
During the 1960s and 1970s the Guilford County schools completed a process that had begun in the nineteenth century. The long road ofdistrict consolidation culminated in the opening of four modern highschools, serving the quadrants of Guilford County. This consolidationcame about largely under the impetus of James B. Conant's The AmericanHigh School Today, in combination with the Sputnik-spawned perceptionthat the United States was lagging behind the Soviet Union in scientificachievement. Large high schools, people thought, could offer moreadvanced courses and accelerate learning.
But the specter of desegregation lurked in the background. The fact that E. P. Pearce combined district consolidation with racial desegregation,two of the most traumatic experiences in the history of twentieth centuryeducation, while maintaining stability, represents nothing less thanmasterful school system administration.
CENTRAL OFFICE
E. P. Pearce, Junior, graduated from Wake Forest University in 1938 with a degree in mathematics. He taught at Mount Pleasant High School inCabarrus County, the largest rural consolidated school in North Carolina,for two years. He moved to Durham in 1940, where he taught at Poe JuniorHigh for another two years. In 1942 Pearce joined the mathematicsdepartment at the University of North Carolina, while he studied thehistory of education under Professor Edgar Knight, receiving the M.A.degree in 1944.
Pearce joined the navy later that year working in communications and codes. During the war years, he studied briefly at Harvard. The end ofthe war found him stationed at Pearl Harbor, where he capped his navalcareer by almost running over Admiral Chester Nimitz with a jeep.
E. P. Pearce returned to Chapel Hill in 1946, intending to pursue doctoral studies. But a friend had just become superintendent of theSanford schools and offered him a position as principal of Sanford HighSchool. Pearce accepted. He continued his doctoral program, eventuallycompleting all course work requirements. The degree itself ran aground,however, when the education department refused to waive a year's fulltimeresidency requirements. By that time, of course, Pearce could hardly beexpected to resign as Assistant Superintendent of the Guilford Countyschools in order to establish residency.
When Gene Idol announced his retirement, the board of education announced its intention to make E. P. Pearce the new superintendent. Thetransition, therefore, was smooth and quick. The board retained Idol as apart-time building consultant.
The same year that E. P. Pearce became superintendent, 1959, another central office employee of long standing retired. Charles Alderman hadheaded the schools' business office for 28 years. The board passed aresolution of "abiding appreciation" for his services.
Marriage:
IN A LOVELY ceremony at the First Associate reformed Presbyterian church
Thursday at 5:30 in the afternoon, Miss Sarah Alexander was married to Ernest Plummer Pearce, Jr., of Hamlet and Durham. The officiating minister was Rev. William c. Alexander of Ora, S.C., the bride's uncle.
The marriage vows were spoken before a background of palms and southern smilax, with white gladioli arranged in fan-shaped design and with candelabra holding cathedral tapers.
Warren Babcock furnished the wedding music, playing a medley of songs before and during the ceremony. "The Wedding March" from the opera "Lohengrin" was used for the processional and Mendelsohn's "Wedding March" for recessional.
The bride entered the church with her father, Samuel Irvin Alexander, who gave her in marriage. She was joined at the alter by the bridegroom, who was unattended. Ushers were James W. Alexander, brother of the bride, and Edwin Pearce of Hamlet, brother of the bridegroom.
The bride wore a wedding dress and veil worn by her mother at her wedding 24 years ago. The gown was of white satin, paneled back and front, with under-arm shirring and full flowing skirt. The veil was held in place at the back by a band of tuberoses and rosebuds. The bride's bouquet was of white roses and baby's breath, showered with swainsona.
Mrs. Alexander, the bride's mother, wore an orchid sheer gown with shoulder bouquet of yellow roses and orchid chrysanthemums.
Mrs. Pearce, the bridegroom's mother, wore a blue crepe ensemble. Her flowers were white roses.
Mrs. Pearce is the oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Irvin Alexander of 517 Beaumont avenue. Educated in the Charlotte schools, she took her college course at Muskingum, New Concord, Ohio, graduating in 1940. While at Muskingum she was a member of the F.A.D. club. She taught last year at Fayetteville.
Mr. Pearce is the son of Mr. And Mrs. Ernest Plummer Pearce of Hamlet. He is a graduate of Wake Forest, class of 1938, doing post-graduate work later at the University of North Carolina. At Wake Forest he was a member of the Golden Bough. He is professor of mathematics in the Durham city schools.
Following the wedding, a reception was held by the bride's parents at their home. Vases of roses decorated the living room. Receiving with Mr. And Mrs. Alexander were the bride and bridegroom and Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Pearce, parents of the bridegroom. Miss Ediht Alexander welcomed guests at the door.
A color note of white and green was used in the dining room. A three tier cake graced the center of the table which was spread with a lace cloth and lighted by white candles in silver holders. Sprays of white clematis added to the table effect. An ice course was served. The wedding cake was cut by the bride and was served by Miss Alma Willis Pearce of Hamlet. Also serving were Miss Kathryn Alexander, Miss Ann Zachery, Miss Connie Horn of Monroe and Mrs. B. C. Booe of Winston-Salem.
Out-of-town guests were Mr. And Mrs. E. P. Pearce, Sr., Edwin, Bill, and Miss Alma Willis Pearce, Mrs. J. H. Hawkins and Mrs. R. M. Galloway of hamlet; Mrs. T. E. Woosley of Clemmons; Mrs. C. P. Miller and Miss Ruth Miller of Salisbury; Mr. and Mrs. Cliff Westmoreland, Miss Katherine Westmoreland, Jones H. Alexander and Miss Joyce Alexander, Mr. and Mrs. S. O. Baker, Beulah, Roberta and Stephen Baker of Huntersville; Miss Edith Alexander of Cramerton; Miss Connie Horn of Monroe; Mr. and Mrs. B. C. Booe of Winston-Salem; Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Ferguson, Miss Nelda and Miss Lindsay Ferguson of Durham; Rev. and Mrs. John W. Link, Prof. Floyd Woodward, Miss Elizabeth Coppedge, Miss Louise Beale of Mt. Pleasant; Mrs. M. M. Morrison, Robert, Boyce and Miss Janie Morrison of Davidson; Miss Minnie Robertson of Derita; Miss Edith M. Stewart of New Concord, Ohio; and Rev. W. C. Alexander of Ora, S. C.
After a wedding trip to western North Carolina, Mr. and Mrs. Pearce will be at home at Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill. Mrs. Pearce traveled in a blue-grey crepe frock, princess style, with matching accessories.
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| Sources | | |
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- Title: Sarah Alexander Approved
Author: Sarah Alexander
Quality: 2
Jason.Pearce.net.
- Title: E.P. Pearce Jr. Scrapbook
Author: Sarah Alexander (b. 4 Aug 1919)
Jason.Pearce.net.
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