Francis Burke Fitzpatrick, Professor of Education

RU History

Francis Burke Fitzpatrick
&
Evelyn Fitzpatrick

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Francis "F.B." Fitzpatrick and his daughter, Evelyn Fitzpatrick, were both long time members of Radford's Education Department.

F.B. Fitzpatrick was the Professor of Education from 1919 until his death in March, 1943. Fitzpatrick served in every capacity in the Virginia public school system, from teacher in a one-room school to principal of various high schools including Pulaski, Virginia.

The editors of the 1942 Beehive dedicated the yearbook to Fitzpatrick, dubbing him "The Teacher". The full dedication reads as follows:

"For more than a generation as classroom teacher, principal, superintendent of schools, college professor, and leader in professional organizations he has shown by example the deeper values of education. In his teaching, his writing, and his professional addresses, his aim and purpose have been to lead us to a keener appreciation of those fundamentals of human experience, those finer qualities of living which come only with a true understanding of our fellow men. By us, his present students, he is regarded as a talented gentleman and exemplar of those ideals which he has ever held before us."

Evelyn Fitzpatrick graduated cum laude from Radford in 1929 with a Bachelor of Science degree in English, Social Studies and Science. In addition to her duties as a professor in the Education Department, she was the supervisor of student teachers for the second grade in Radford College's McGuffey Training School.

The pictures of F.B. and Evelyn Fitzpatrick were loaned to the University Archives for scanning purposes by Louise Fitzpatrick Turner, their granddaughter and niece, herself a school teacher in the Montgomery County school system.

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