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Phi Delta Kappan |
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Valdosta State University |
Chapter # 1314 |
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| Home | Valdosta Chapter | News | Officers| Meetings | Awards |Area Schools | PDK International | |
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Phi Delta Kappan |
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Valdosta State University |
Chapter # 1314 |
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| Home | Valdosta Chapter | News | Officers| Meetings | Awards |Area Schools | PDK International | |
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History of the Valdosta State University Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa |
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A special thanks goes to Dr. Tucker for providing an historical record of the Valdosta PDK Chapter. An attempt to start the Valdosta State University Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa
was originally begun about 1969 by Dr. Don Gerlock and Dr. Larry Oldaker of
Valdosta State College. They met with little support from the administration and
eventually dropped the project. In 1973 Dr. Glenn Tucker received an order from
his supervisor, Mr. Allen Smith, to work with the college to form a local
chapter of PDK. Mr. Smith was the director of the newly formed Coastal Plains
Cooperative Educational Services Agency, CESA, later changed to RESA. Dr. Tucker contacted Larry Oldaker, still at Valdosta State, and the two wrote letters to the national headquarters of PDK at Bloomington, IN. The reply said that it was first necessary to have a Phi Delta Kappa Club, and Dr. Oldaker contacted several administrators at the College and Dr. Tucker contacted his supervisor. This time the College Administrators smiled kindly of the effort and a list of members in the area was obtained from the national headquarters. The first meeting was held in the spring of 1974, I believe, and a mailing to members in the area preceded the initial meeting. The club was started and several of the members wrote a constitution and by-laws based on the national constitution and bylaws. Active in the new club at this time was, beside Drs. Tucker, Oldaker and Gerlock, Dr. Elmer Ellis, Dr. Robert Fisher, Dr. Don Gerlock, Dr. Ed Merryman, Dr. John Yeomans and several others. Dr. Elmer Ellis was the Club president and Dr. Tucker the treasurer. Dr. Tucker was the first to pay his dues to obtain funds needed to buy a ledger. The first item of importance to be debated was whether to admit women to membership. The Supreme Court had ruled the preceding year that membership to women could not be denied in any organization as important as Phi Delta Kappa to American education. The club voted in unison that women should be admitted, after a good amount of teasing the married members of the club with wives eligible to join. After the first year, the club having met the goals of the national association of meeting the required number of times in a year, all the members of the club went on a recruiting drive for members to join the new chapter. On February 13, 1975 the club attained chapter status and over 50 new members were inducted into membership of Phi Delta Kappa, Valdosta State College Chapter, designated a field chapter, opened to all educators in the area and not just to professors of the college.
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