Tarleton and OpenStax Textbook Partnership

 Tarleton State University is excited to announce that they are one of 12 schools chosen to join the 2020-2021 OpenStax Institutional Partnership Network. See the full press release here. Tarleton prides itself on being affordable and this partnership will helpTarleton expand access to low and no- cost textbooks. "One of Tarleton's ongoing goals is continuing to offer and affordable college education" -Diane Taylor, Associate Provost and Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs.

About OpenStax 

OpenStax provides peer-reviewed textbooks that are freely available online to students. Instructors have access to Canvas course modules, test banks and other instructional materials. This partnership also grants Tarleton instructors and students access to OpenStax Tutor for a year. OpenStax Tutor provides additional guidance and tutoring for biology, physics and sociology.

About Open Educational Resources 

Interested in using OERs in your classroom? The Scholarly Communication & OER Librarian can help find and evaluate resources for your courses. Email kpierce@tarleton.edu for more information. You can also find more information about open resources on Tarleton Libraries's OER webpage. 

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

George Oliver Ferguson

George Ollie Ferguson was a lifelong Erath County resident.  He attended John Tarleton College from its opening in 1899 until 1901.  He received his BA from the University of Texas in 1907 and his masters from the University of Chicago in 1917.

G.O. Ferguson joined the Tarleton faculty in 1913 as professor of history and economics, and head of the economics and social science department.  He became associate dean and registrar in 1919.  Dean Ferguson retired in 1946, but continued teaching until 1950.  During his tenure he also taught Spanish, German and sociology.   Dean Ferguson, along with other faculty members, stuck it out at Tarleton through the thinnest of times.

Upon his retirement, Dean Ferguson was given the status of Associate Dean Emeritus.  In 1959 Tarleton built a new men’s dormitory and named it after Dean Ferguson – Ferguson Hall – which is still here today, the dorm closest to the library.  Dean Ferguson is shown above in his office in the administration building (now the Education building).

G.O. Ferguson died April 8, 1963 of a heart attack at his ranch sixteen miles southeast of Stephenville.  He was buried across the street in Stephenville West End Cemetery.  His family home was on Vanderbilt Street.  His widow Nona Laney Ferguson continued living in their home on Vanderbilt and caring for their rental duplex apartments next door.  Mrs. Ferguson was my first landlady when I moved to Stephenville in 1969.  She died in 1971.

Dean Ferguson’s sisters, Mett and Minn, were also long time educators.  Minn was on the Tarleton faculty as an instructor of piano and secretary of the Music department.  She graduated from John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1915 and from the New York School of Music and art in 1920.  Mett was a long time public school teacher in East Texas.  Mettie died in 1961 and Minn in 1972.  Both are buried in Stephenville West End Cemetery.

Dean Ferguson’s daughter and son in law, Mary and Jack Anderson, have been longtime members and supporters of the Dick Smith Library Friends and have helped with many book sales and programs.  Jack also served as president and as secretary treasurer of the Friends group.

Here’s to a family of great supporters of Tarleton and the Dick Smith Library!

Dick Smith Library Cross Timbers Historic Images.

JTAC, April 23, 1963.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

A New Bus

and MORE !

Seventy five years ago – the fall of 1937 – students living at the college farm were welcomed to Tarleton with a brand new bus to ride to and from campus.  It was built in the Tarleton shop under the direction of E.A. Blanchard, Associate Professor of Automobile Engineering.  The $25 motor was from a Chevrolet truck.  It took only three weeks to build the bus, which was closed in with glass and streamlined, enabling the boys to travel in the coldest weather.  The bus left the farm at 6:30 a.m. in order to get to the dining hall for breakfast, returned to the farm at 1 p.m., and went back to the dining hall at 5:30 p.m. for dinner.  

Not only did Doc Blanchard oversee building the bus, he invented a bottle washer for the diary at the college farm that same year.  The bottle washer enabled the diary to wash more than 1800 bottles a day, some 300 more than before, resulting in more milk going to the dining hall.

E.A. “Doc” Blanchard, shown above in 1930 and 1962, was a Tarleton icon – he fought in both World Wars, came to Tarleton in 1926, retired in 1962, has a street on campus named for him, always kept a Tarleton post office box , and lived to be 100.   One of his hobbies was building vintage cars.  He restored and gave to the university the red 1911 Ford Model T Fire Chief car that many have seen in the Thompson Student Center (TSC).  Doc and his wife Nellene could always be seen in the local parades in one of his vintage automobiles, or at their home on Lillian, across the street from the TSC, working on them.   

He was also a licensed instructor of meteorology and civil air commerce.   He was instrumental in organizing the flight training program at Tarleton, which trained 126 pilots during World War II.  Born in Fredericksburg, Texas, on January 13, 1897, and of German descent, Doc Blanchard also wrote a manual for training intelligence officers on how to interrogate German prisoners and edited Army Motors Magazine.  As childhood friends, he also played with Chester Nimitz behind the bar of the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg.

On perhaps a lighter note, Doc Blanchard was responsible for recovering and restoring to its original glory our cannon.  Students from rival NTAC stole the cannon in November 1928 during the football game week.  Because it was so cumbersome to haul all the way back to Arlington, the NTAC students dumped the cannon in the Bosque River.  Doc Blanchard and the Tarleton maintenance foreman, Ed Emmett, pulled it from the river with a tractor and returned it to campus where Doc restored it.

Doc Blanchard was an avid supporter of Tarleton most of his life.  He died September 1, 1997 at the age of 100.

Grassburr, 1930, 1962.

JTAC September 28, 1937, May 1, 1962, September 4, 1997.

Guthrie, Christopher E.  John Tarleton and his Legacy.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Dr. Grant Heads Tour to Europe

50 years ago – the summer of 1962 – Dr. O.A. Grant, along with other Tarleton faculty members Miss Lee Edwin Terry, and Mrs. Virginia Yearwood took a group of students from colleges all over Texas and other states, on a 66 day tour of Europe.  Dr. Grant arranged for the trip in association with the Universal Travel Service.

According to the September 25, 1962 JTAC, the purpose of the tour was to provide an academic, relatively inexpensive trip to Europe.  Travelers included Tarleton student Dan Roberts, Stephenville students John Yearwood and Harry Bradley, and students from UT, SMU, LSU, OSU, and Kansas – bringing the total to 45 students.

The group sailed from Montreal on the Cariatlin and first stopped in Greenich, Scotland.  They visited England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and France.

In England the group attended The Taming of the Shrew at Stratford-on-Avon.  In London they went to an ascot race and Queen Elizabeth was in attendance. From England they went to Bergen, Germany.  They spent July 4th in Heidelburg.  From there they flew into Berlin and viewed 17 miles of the Berlin Wall.  Dr. Grant stated that “this was one of the most sobering experiences of the trip – a dead silence filled the bus – the wall gave students plenty to think about."

Next stop was the Melk monastery on the Danube River and Austrian border.  They then visited Villach, a swimming resort, Venice, Florence, and Rome.  They spent four days in Rome where they saw the grand opera Aida.  Next came Naples, Pompeii, and Capri.

The grand finale was Paris where the group spent four days and nights.  They saw the Follies, the Louvre, and other interesting historic places.  They flew home from Paris to Dallas via jet in ten hours.

What a trip!  Dr. Grant stated that “anyone interested in such a tour next summer is urged to contact him in the social sciences department."

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Charles & Garnett Froh

Did you know that Charles Froh, an accomplished musician, was the head of Fine Arts at Tarleton from 1910 to 1950?  My blog post on September 9, 2010, was about Charles Froh. Charles had, at the time he retired, the longest tenure of any Tarleton faculty member.

Charles Froh's younger brother Garnett was a also a professor of music at Tarleton, but only taught 11 years. He died in 1932 at the young age of 39. Not only was Garnett Froh an accomplished musician, he was also an artist and completed over 500 paintings. One of his paintings, of Tarleton's first women's dorm, is hanging in the stairway of Hunewell dorm.

The Froh brothers were well known musical pairs in this area and often gave musical entertainments to the Tarleton faculty and students. The Froh brothers built a department of music that was recognized all over the state.  Because of their contribution to Tarleton and the area, the 1933 Grassburr was dedicated to Charles & Garnett Froh.

Come to the Spirits of Erath Cemetery Walk across the street on Sunday afternoon October 30, 2011, at 2 p.m. and find out more about the Froh brothers and many other local "spirits." Cost is $5 per person for an entertaining afternoon. You might recognize some of them!

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Tarleton Connections Abroad - 50+ years ago!

Do you suppose that Dick Smith knew and visited with 1956/57 Tarleton student Frank Blazek from Czechoslovakia? Frank is shown above with his hand on the world. You will recognize the library globe, a gift from the class of 1946-47, which is currently located in the Special Collections area on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library.

Dr. Dick Smith, our library namesake, spent three months in Europe during the summer of 1961, and part of the time in Czechoslovakia. It was his fourth trip to Europe. That summer, fifty years ago, Dr. Smith took a casual, off the beaten path, tour of Europe. He visited lesser traveled areas of Italy, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, and England.

In Italy, Dr. Smith had an extraordinarily good time in Bologna visiting the ancient University of Bologna, a center of legal training in the Middle Ages. He saw rare illuminated manuscripts from the 9th century in their library.

From Trieate, Italy, Dr. Smith took a four day freighter trip down the Adriatic coast to Yugoslavia's medieval town Dubrovnik. He was a guest at an educational conference with professors and students from forty different countries.

In Budapest and Prague, Dr. Smith visited historical sights and famous art museums. In Vienna, he accidentally met Rev. Kenneth Pope, who had visited the Tarleton campus during Religious Emphasis Week several years prior.

While in the Austrian Alps, Dr. Smith stayed in a resort hotel that had been a political prison during the 15th century. During his stay in Germany, he was a guest of a baroness in her medieval mansion, and visited fine arts museums and attended the opera in Munich. On Dr. Dick Smith's return home, he stopped over in Paris and London.

Wow, what a trip our namesake made 50 years ago!

J-TAC, September 19, 1961.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Col. James D. Bender

Tarleton's Bender Hall, the men's dormitory built in 1953, is named for Col. James D. Bender. From 1936-1941, Major and then Lt. Col. Bender was professor of military science and tactics at John Tarleton Agricultural College. He left Tarleton and returned to active duty in May 1941. Dean Davis was so impressed with how Lt. Col. Bender ran the Tarleton ROTC program that he had asked Bender to stay another year after his four year term had expired.

Prior to coming to Tarleton, Col. Bender had won the Silver Star for gallantry in action with the 6th Division in France in World War I. Afterward he served in the Philippines, Hawaii, and the Panama Canal Zone and with the 2nd Division at Fort Sam Houston. He also served as regional commander of the CCC in Central West Texas. During his years at Tarleton Bender instructed some 1500 cadets who became commissioned officers in various branches of the armed forces.

The September 19, 1936 JTAC states... Major Bender trains polo ponies along with work - a first in ROTC! Whoever heard of a polo player at Tarleton! Tarleton has one now in the person of Major James D. Bender! In fact, polo was Bender's major hobby. He played many times during his service at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio before coming to Tarleton. He stated that training polo ponies was very easy....all you have to do is ride each one about thirty minutes a day, making it stop, start, and turn rapidly. If the horse doesn't stop quickly enough, one has to ride where there are a number of fences and let the horse run into the fence a few times! Another sport he enjoyed was sitting on the curb in front of the bank and listening to a recitation of all the horse trades that had been accomplished in the last ten years!

Bender left Tarleton to become an instructor in machine gun and automatic rifle at the Fort Benning Infantry School. In 1942 he transferred to Camp Swift where he activated the 387th Infantry for combat. He was promoted to full colonel during World War II. Col. Bender and his troops landed in Normandy on June 6, 1943. He was killed in France July 1944.

Cross Timbers Historic Images Project, photo and obituary.

Guthrie, Christopher E. , John Tarleton and his Legacy, p.84.

JTAC, September 19. 1936.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Former Tarleton President George J. Nunn

100 years ago the President of John Tarleton College was George J. Nunn. He assumed the duty at the beginning of the 1911-12 term. However his tenure at Tarleton was short lived. He resigned after one year to return to Amarillo to oversee his business interests there.

Mr. Nunn, a distinguished scholar and world traveler, obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University and also studied in Leipzig, Germany. He had traveled extensively in Europe and the Holy Land, cruising with his wife from Montreal on June 1, 1910 and sailing back from London in October 1910. He had been in the administration of Alexander Institute in Jacksonville and Polytechnic Institue in Fort Worth prior to coming to Tarleton. His wife was Stephenville native Zula Orr, daughter of William Polk Orr, who with his family, settled in Stephenville in 1882. Mr. Orr, a hardware dealer specializing in harnesses and carriages, was a member of the first city council. Mrs. Orr was a member of the Twentieth Century Club, and had served as president.

Not much happened at John Tarleton College during his one year tenure but prior to his presidency the wealthy widow Mary Corn Wilkerson had donated 370 acres of land to Tarleton. It was sold and the profits were used to build the first women's dorm on campus. The Mary Corn Wilkerson dormitory was completed by the fall of 1908 and was located where the Hunewell annex is now facing McIlhaney.

One tidbit contained in the June 16, 1911 Stephenville Empire stated that "Dr. Nunn thinks a large picture of Mrs. Mary C. Wilkerson should by all means adorn the walls of the dormitory and one is being made for that purpose!"

Chamberlain, Frank. The Early Presidents of Tarleton, Dick Smith Library Cross Timbers Historic Images Project.

Guthrie, Christopher E., John Tarleton and His Legacy.

King, C. Richard, Golden Days of Purple & White.

Stephenville Empire, June 16, 1911.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Miss Margaret Bierschwale to Become Librarian

The May 2, 1931 JTAC's front page news announced that Miss Margaret Bierschwale was, as of June 1, to replace Mrs. Dorothy Lee Fagan as head librarian of the college. Miss Bierschwale had come to Tarleton in September 1920 as head of the Physical Training department. She had been the head of the English department in Navasota High School while Tarleton Dean J. Thomas Davis was the superintendent.

In January 1921, Miss Bierschwale was made head of the Tarleton English department and served in that capacity until June 1923. She then spent time pursuing a graduate degree and traveling to England, Scotland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. She received her B.A. degree from Randolph Macon Woman's College and her M.A. from Columbia University. She also served as an assistant in the New York Public Libraries. She returned to Tarleton in 1931 as the college librarian.

In 1935/36 Miss Bierschwale took leave from her position as Tarleton librarian to study graduate English at Columbia University in pursuit of her Ph.D. She studied Elizabethan drama with Professor F.S. Boas of London, a rare treat!

As librarian at Tarleton Miss Bierschwale enlarged and enriched the library's collection, especially in Texas history. She instilled a love of rare books and quality Texas history resources into one of her students, C. Richard King, who became a historian and collector of Texana. Dr. King donated his materials to our library.

Miss Bierschwale resigned in December 1943. "To her staff of library assistants she has been an inspiration; to the Library Committee she has proved a constant source of guidance and vision; to countless students she has endeared herself through her sympathy, understanding, and unselfish service!"

Grassburr, 1931, 1933.

JTAC, May 2, 1931, September 29, 1936, December 7, 1943.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

"Miss Mary Marrs Enjoys a Trip to Mexico City"

"Not all faculty members suffered from the Texas heat all summer!" Miss Mary Marrs and her sister, Mrs. W.B. McAdams, flew to Mexico City for a weeks vacation the summer of 1936. It was Miss Marrs' first time to fly, but after the trip she was then a "confirmed air traveler."

Miss Marrs and her sister had a wonderful trip, making side trips to Tasco, Cuerna Vava, and the famous Floating Gardens....."where orchids are a dime a dozen." However, I'm not sure that they escaped the Texas heat - it's hot in Mexico too - but the trip was awesome!

Assistant Professor Marrs taught mathematics at Tarleton for 27 years, retiring in 1952. Not only did she teach at Tarleton, she was a member of the first Tarleton class in 1899. Miss Marrs recalled that the first year there were four teachers, Dr. W.H. Bruce, the president, who also taught the advanced students upstairs in the first Tarleton building. Other teachers were H.J. McIlhany, Mrs. Pearl Ponder Chamberlin, and Miss Clara Bartholomew. She stated that most students rode horses to school and tied them to the trees. A windmill and wooden water tank were located behind the building. Dubbed the "Dog House", this is where the athletes took their baths.

In 1899 the girls and boys weren't allowed to associate with each other. One time Miss Marrs and her date wanted to go to a party. Just before time to go they donned their party clothes and went to see Dr. Bruce for permission.....it worked....he let them go!

During her Tarleton teaching career Miss Marrs taught a number of future Tarleton faculty including Dick Smith, Zeddie Edgar, H.W. Leach, Autis McMahan, Reuben Friou, and former Tarleton business manager Gerald Fanning.

Miss Marrs retired from Tarleton in the summer of 1952. Regretting that she didn't finish out a full 50 years, she stated that "after all, 48 years is a long time!" After retiring, "I am going to travel in the Northeast, particularly Washington, New York, and Boston."  Unfortunately, Miss Marrs died October 15, 1953, after being hospitalized for seven months.

Hope you can escape some of the Texas heat this summer too......even if it is to Mexico heat!

Grassburr, 1935.

J-TAC, September 16, 1952, October 20, 1953.

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.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Snuff for Glover!

"Recently one of Miss Glover's English classes presented her with a box of Garrett's snuff as a joke! Most teachers would have been shocked beyond response that her students thought as little of her as to give her such a present! But not Miss Glover! Just what I need to poison the insects on my flowers when they become especially troublesome, she joyously remarked, explaining that she had been wanting some snuff to use as insect poison for a long time, but was afraid to buy any for fear of what her students and friends might think if she did! By this time the class, thoroughly disgusted and thwarted, solemnly agreed that it was nigh on to impossible to get the best of Miss Glover, no matter how hard they tried!" This story was in the November 13, 1951 J-TAC.

Miss Dollie Glover, professor emeritus, was born in Brownwood on February 22, 1895, and graduated as valedictorian of both Brownwood High School and Howard Payne University. She received her M.A. from the University of Texas in 1925. After teaching high school in Taylor, Big Spring, and Santa Anna, she was head of the English Department at Kidd-Key College in Sherman. Glover came to Tarleton as an Assistant Professor of English in 1926/27, and retired in 1960. The Grassburr photos above show Miss Glover in 1929 and 1960.

The 1935 Grassburr was dedicated to her, and she was honored as a distinguished faculty member in 1970. She was the author of A Daily Guide to Correct English published in 1965. Miss Glover was very active in the community and was a charter member of Stephenville's branch of the American Association of University Women. She was a member of the Erath County Retired Teachers Association, was a member of the Erath County American Cancer Society, served on the board of the Senior Citizens Center, and was a member of the American Heart Association and the Tarleton State College Ex-Students Association. She also was a member of the Chamber of Commerce education committee.

In the world of academia, Miss Glover was a charter member of the Joint English Committee for Schools and Colleges, the South-Central Modern Language Association, Conference of College Teachers of English, the American Association of University Professors, and was listed in the Directory of American Scholars and Who's Who in Texas Today.

A member of the Stephenville First United Methodist Church and a charter member of the Wesleyan Service Guild, Miss Glover also wrote a history of the church. She died in Stephenville on January 16, 1984, and was buried in Greenleaf Cemetery in Brownwood.

Not only was Miss Dollie Glover an excellent English teacher and devout supporter of education, she must have also had quite a sense of humor! Wonder if the snuff worked on her flowers...and how many of her former students remember the antic?

Stephenville Empire Tribune, January 17, 1984.

Grassburr, 1929.

Grassburr, 1960.

J-TAC, November 13, 1951.

J-TAC, January 26, 1984.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

75 Years Ago

Last week the Tarleton Thursdays blog was about Charles Froh and the Fine Arts Department - about when he came to Tarleton in 1910 and the department had 3 pianos and one instructor - and then by 1930 had a new conservatory with fine equipment and splendid staff! Seventy-five years ago, in the fall of 1935, the J-TAC boasted headlines such as the "Band is Largest in School's History," "Plans Made for Coming Years in Fine Arts Club," and "College Orchestra to have Tryouts."

One of the students in 1935-36 was Clyde H. Wells, shown in the photo above. Clyde Wells, a Stephenville native, attended Tarleton from 1935-1936, going on to graduate from Texas A & M. While at Tarleton he was an agricultural education major, was on the livestock judging team and was a member of the SOTS (Sons of Tarleton Society).

Clyde Wells served on the faculty at Tarleton and Texas Christian University. He was also with the USDA Soil Conservation Service and lived in Granbury, where he was associated with the Black Ranch. He was Director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show, and served as a trustee for the Texas A & M Research Foundation. As chairman of the A & M Board of Regents and chairman of the Council of Governing Boards of Texas Colleges and Universities, he was devoted to Tarleton and one of the best friends Tarleton has ever had.

Clyde Wells was involved in many organizations, contributing time and funds to various community activities in Granbury, as well as Tarleton. He was selected as Tarleton's Distinguished Alumnus in 1971. He was honored by the House Concurrent Resolution 63 adopted by the 68th Legislature in 1983, recognizing him for his many educational and agricultural contributions to the state of Texas. He was a member of the board of Trustees of Tarleton's Development Foundation, was a member of the President's Commission and served as president of the Tarleton Alumni Association from 1952-1954.

Little did Clyde Wells know 75 years ago when he was a Tarleton student that our Fine Arts Center of today would be named in his honor!

Grassburr, 1936.

J-TAC, September 28, 1935

J-TAC, February 5, 1987.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Charles W. Froh

1936 Grassburr

"Enthusiastic Tarleton Music Professor, Here Since 1910, Thinks Summer Too Long!"

According to the September 21, 1935 J-TAC, Charley Wesley Froh, head of the music department at John Tarleton College, instructor since 1910, was the oldest man in point of service in the college. He had taught consecutively since 1904, first as head of the music department at Western Piano College, Fresno, California. Then in 1906 he began teaching at Add-Ran-Jarvis College in Thorp Spring (the forerunner of TCU), and came to Tarleton in 1910.

Upon arriving at Tarleton, the music department consisted of three pianos and one instructor. In 1915, the conservatory moved to a larger building. A splendid, new, modern conservatory was completed in 1930 and had the finest musical equipment and a splendid staff. He headed the fine arts department for nearly 40 years.

Recognized as a master in music circles, Charles Froh was also choir director at the First Methodist Church, with his brother Garnett as the pianist. He built up enrollment in Tarleton's music department to a high figure. Fully retiring in 1950, Froh opened successful private studios in Stephenville and Dublin. 

Tarleton's grand old man of music died January 6, 1953, and is buried across the street in the West End Cemetery. He stated, "If I had my life to live over, I would certainly choose music again. I have been very happy."

Charles Froh worked with a fire and zeal that inspired students to do their best. His office files indicated that he had taught some 3,000 students with hundreds of them going on to teach in various parts of the country. Not only that, the walls in his office was lined with a collection of over 500 portraits of musician students and friends.

Seventy-five years ago that fire and zeal really showed in his statement to the J-TAC that "The summer was too long. I had too much vacation. I am eager to get started in the new year!"

We hope that you too have eagerly begun this new 2010-11 school year and wish you the best!

Grassburr, 1935-36.
J-TAC, September 21, 1935.

J-TAC, January 13, 1953.

Stephenville Empire-Tribune, January 9, 1953.