Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

"First Women's Dean Writes of Two Exes"

The February 15, 1936 J-TAC states that a letter had been received from Mrs. Lily Pearl Chamberlin, a member of the first faculty in the old John Tarleton College, and the first Dean of Women, stating the whereabouts of a couple of Tarleton's former students.

While reading the February 1936 issue of Reader's Digest, Mrs. Chamberlin noticed mention of Dr. Michael Shadid, from Syria, who established in Elk City, Oklahoma, the only consumer owned and controlled hospital in the United States. He was a student at Tarleton in 1901-02. Mr. Shadid was highly pleased with the instruction received at Tarleton and the kindness received from the citizens.

Mrs. Chamberlin also wrote of another former Tarleton student, Doyle D. Jackson, an Erath county boy in the class of 1918, who was on the faculty of Texas Tech. He told Mrs. Chamberlin that it was at Tarleton that he caught the vision and became inspired with a burning desire to do something really worthwhile in the educational world.

Not only was Mrs. Chamberlin a member of Tarleton's first faculty, and the first Dean of Women, she also started the Home Economics Department at Tarleton. The first classes were held in the fall of 1915 with 18 enrolled in her foods class and 24 enrolled in her sewing class. The home economics department's motto was "we live to love and serve."

Check out the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Sciences sewing display in the library foyer. Lily Pearl also stated in her letter that there is a lot of satisfaction in thinking of the thousands of students whose lives have been made better and stronger and happier by their attendance at Tarleton.