Hope school system honors five former educators
HOPE, Ark.—The Hope Public School System recognized five of its former educators by inducting them into the system’s Educator Hall of Fame on Friday.
Of the five honorees, four were recognized postumously: the late Mary Nell Turner, a former journalism teacher at Hope High School; the late Earl Davis Downs, founder of the educational counseling office at the high school; the late Will V. Rutherford, principal of Yerger High School; and Henry C. Yerger, founder of black education in the school system.
Troy Wayne Buck, Hope High School’s vocational and agricultural teacher, received his award in person.
Buck’s tenure began in 1961, at age 21, in the school’s agricultural department and lasted until he retired in 1982. Buck encouraged students to volunteer in helping residents after natural disasters. The students also collected trash along city and county roadways. Buck also oversaw the Hope Future Farmers of America chapter, which would become the largest and most active in the state, creating summer jobs for students hauling hay through Hempstead County.
“FAA students cut and hauled hay for farmers every summer,” said Waulea Skeeter Huckabee, one of his daughters. “Farming and ranching was hard work for all six of us girls, but Dad taught us the values, morals and work ethics that are all critical to good living”
Buck also helped the Hope FFA Rodeo become the largest student-run rodeo in Arkansas. He became a three-time recipient of the Arkansas Teacher of the Year Award and winner of the Arkansas Department of Vocational Education’s Pioneer Award.
Downs, a native of Bodcaw, Ark., was born in 1927 and graduated from Bodcaw High School before receiving a bachelor’s degree in education. He then taught school in Emmet and Macedonia, Ark., before receiving his master’s degree in education at the University Arkansas in 1959.
Downs created the guidance counseling program at Hope High School and worked in counseling for 32 years before retiring in 1987. That same year, he received rec- ognition as Educator of the Year in Hope and Hempstead County in addition to being recognized as one of the founding leaders of the Hope FFA Rodeo.
Downs also served as a member of the Arkansas Department of Education Secondary Advisory Board for 20 years, in addition to being a member of the Arkansas School Counselors’ Association for 32 years. This included two years as the association’s president. Hope High School’s Counseling Center took on Downs’ name in his honor after he died in December 2014.
Rutherford, who was born in Wilmer, Ark., went through the public school system there before receiving a bachelor’s degree from Arkansas Baptist College in 1931. He later attended Arkansas AM&N College (now known as the University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff) before earning a Master of Science degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He served as principal of H.C. Yerger High School from 1949 to 1969. During these 20 years, the school added a lunchroom, an adult veterans’ program and a vocational building before the Shover Street Elementary School construction.
Rutherford continued in educa- tion after integration and served as the first principal of Yerger Middle School before retiring in 1972.
Turner, who was born in Hope in August 1919, graduated from Hope High School and then received a bachelor’s degree in business and English from Henderson State Teachers’s College, now Henderson State University.
Turner started her teaching career in Guernsey, Ark., but later accepted a position teaching journalism and yearbook publication at Hope High School. She remained there for 28 years. She later was inducted into the Arkansas Press Women’s organization as a fre- quent contributor of feature stories to the Arkansas Gazette and the Hope Star.
Turner served as a longtime editor of the Journal of the Hempstead County Historical Society before being named Hempstead County Citizen of the Year in 1996.
Following her retirement, Turner moved to Springdale, Ark., in 2010 before dying in March of 2016.
Yerger, born in December 1860 near Spring Hill, Ark., graduated from Philander Smith College and studied at Boston University as well as at the Hampton Institute in Virginia. He moved to Hope in 1886, where he eventually established the Shover Street Elementary school for black children. The school started out as a one-room building where he was the sole teacher and principal. His persistence in education later caused the school to expand to four classrooms and four teachers. By 1915, a second story had to be added along with an eventual agriculture department and a vocational training school for black children—the only such school west of the Mississippi River at that time.
Finally, in 1931, the Henry C. Yerger High School opened with a 900-plus student enrollment. Yerger died in 1936. His awards include being named Outstanding Citizen in Hope in addition to serving as president, treasurer and board member of the Arkansas Teachers Association.