S.B. Underwood
This article describes the career and achievements of S.B. Underwood, president of the N.C. Teachers Assembly. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "The President of the N.C. Teachers Assembly, S.B. Underwood," Training School Quarterly, Volume 7, pp. 85-88.
Samuel Bobbit Underwood, president of the North Carolina Teachers Assembly for 1920, knows the schools of the State, every kind and degree, knows the teachers of the State, from college presidents to the teacher of the one-teacher school in the swamp, and knows the folks who send their children to school, and the little folks who go to school. His breeding, home training, his training in the shcools, and his experience, have all worked together to fit him eminently for leadership of all the teaching forces in North Carolina, and of leading them so that all those whom these are teaching shall never be lost sight of.
He has run the gamut of shcool positions from the little one-teacher school in the swamps to that of county superintendency, and he went through all the stages in the rise. When the nominating committee presented his name for the presidency, following the precedent of having the retiring vice president become president, there was no protest from any one. In the past there have been threats of breaking this precedent and it is sometimes the storm center.But this yearall seemed pleased.
A review of Mr. Underwood's career reveals the secret of this understanding of people. His record in schools, both as teacher and as student, is sufficient explanation of his understanding of schools.
He was prepared for college at Trinity Park High School.He was graduated from Trinity Colleg in 1906, but began with the class of 1905.He began his teaching career before this. He dropped out of school one year, during which he was the principalof a two-teacher school in Camden County.During one summer vacation he taught a one-teacher school in Dare County.While in college he taught an English class in Trinity Park School. When he left college, therefore, it was natural that he should continue in school work.
His first position after leaving college in 1906-07, was in Southern College, Florida, where he taught English.He stayed there only one year.It is significant that this is thi only year he has taught in another State.He was superintendent of schools in Hertford for three years, 1907-10. He was also principal of the high school in Hertford. He whimsically claims that this gave him a chance to see two inportant sides of a question at the time time: the principal in him woud argue with the superintendent. In 1910-11 he was headmaster of Trinity Park High School.But the public school appealed to him more than the private school. He accepted the superintendency of Kinston Schools, and stayed there from 1911 to 1914.In 1914 he bacame superintendent of Pitt County Schools and by virtue of this postion, also a member of the faculty of the East Carolina Teachers Training School.
He is the son of a Methodist preacher, Rev. J.E. Underwood, who for many years has been one of the leading men in the North Carolina Conference.Mr Underwood ws born in Stanly County, October 19, 1885, but his life has been spent in the Eastern Conference.He says his home has been from Bath to Burlington, from Pasquotank to Person, instead of the Murphy to Manteo, or from Currituck to Cherokee.
He was married in December 1906 to Miss Eloise Lister of Pasquotank County.They have one son, "Sam Junior," who is his father in miniature.The father is his boy's chum.
This is perhaps not the place to comment on the effects of the itinerancy on the preacher's son, but it is in place to mention two effects: adaptability, and the oppurtunity to know people of different communities and stations in life.Sam Underwood is another added to the long list of examples who have exploded the old idea in regard to preachers' sons. He is a good man, not only morally, but a religious man; a man of spirituality. While in college he was president of the Young Men's Christian Association.He has always been active in church work.He was delegate to the General Conference of 1918. He has been a lay leader in the Greenville Methodist Church. He is teacher of a class in Sunday School that is composed of 99 Training School young women.When he was in college he seriously considered becoming a preacher but he believed strongly in the divine call of ministy, and his call seemed to be stronger for teaching.
He seems never to have been tempted to any work in life that ws noa a calling; the three that appealed to him were the ministry, journalism, and teaching, all of which are calls to service. He was editor of the Trinity Archive when a Senior in college, and showed real ability as an editor. He later became a regular contributor to the Charlotte Observer, filling a column under the title "Scribblings of an Idler." This column was filled with comments on life and people as he saw them, and these were in an easy philosophical style, full of whimsical, subtle humor. When asked why he does not write more now his excuse is "too busy, too many things to do to take the time to write about them."
He was a leader in other things when he was still in college.He was president of the Columbian Literary Society; he was debater in the intersociety debate; and a member of the Debate Council.He was a member of the Trinity College Historical Society. He was winner to the Wiley Gray medal, which is awarded to the winner in the commencement oratorical contest. He is a member to the "9019," the organization that stands for a high standard in both scholarship and conduct.He has recently been elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society which has just been organized at Trinity.
Wherever he has lived he has been placed in positions of leadership.He is now Vice-President of the Greenville Rotary Club, a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of Greenville Associated Charities. During the war he was active in many of the drives, especially those in which the people were asked to give outright. As Pitt County Chairman of United War Work, the drive was remarkably successful in spite of severe handicapps.He was secretary of the Soldiers Business Commision and was on committees in the Red Cross Drives.
He is also affiliated with State and National organizations.He is a member of the North Carolina Social Service Conference, and of the National Educational Association.He had a part on the program of the recent meeting of the Superintendents Division of N.E.A., meeting in Cleveland.
This is not inteded as a eulogy, it is not boosting, but an honest effort to show the people of North Carolina what sort of a man the president of the Teachers Assembly actually is; a review of his career, an enumeration of his qualifications, and an account of some of the things he has done. There is no pretence, no posing, no bluffing in the man.What he is, he is.
He is clear-headed and practical, with good sound common sense, and with a keen sense of humor. He can size up a situation swiftly and surely, and size up the people who handle situations just as surely. He is a man of keen itellect, a student of books and theories as well of people, and he knows how to bring the two together, to get the practical out of the theoretical, and to make the theoretical practical.People believe in him and they like him personally.He does not antagonize. He is quick to catch the other person's point of view and gets attention for his own in turn. "Will it work?" is one of his tests of a plan, "It can be done, but one must take into consideration certain things," and he proceeds to take them into consideration.
His heart is in the work for the rural schools, and he knows well that where his heart is there should he be also.He has repeatedly been offered positions that to many seemed far more attractive and that would lead to greater honor, but he has not been tempted to change.He has started out to do certain things in Pitt County and for rural schools and he is dertermined to do them.He has convictions that he is right about his notions and feels that he has no right to forsake things he has started before he completes them.
The corner-stone of his faith in the rural schools is made of two ideas: consolidation, meaning few but good schools; and good teachers. He knows that these two go together.The good teachers will not go to the small isolated schools. Consolidation he knows is obliged to mean transportation, and it means large, well-equipped schoolhouses. Gradually he has worked to bring communities together so that the people will be willing to bring their schools together.Each year changes are made.The first truck in the county was started the fall of 1918. Now there are several.
The work that is being done in Pitt County is another story that is still in the making. That will be an interesting chapter within itself, but it is still another chapter.
He is a valuable member of the faculty of the East Carolina Teachers Training School. He is the connecting link between the schools in which the students of this school will teach and the school in which they are getting their training.He realizes fully the need for teachers, and for trained teachers.
It is well for North Carolina teachers that they have this progressive, well-balanced, sane leader to guide them in this year, 1920.
