Gray retires after 43 ‘historical’ years

Such a shame that longtime educator Bill Gray, in spite of his accomplishments and accolades, found himself a little forlorn, following his first class retirement send-off last week, including a staff luncheon and a drive-through celebratory parade of former students, faculty and friends.

He came up just a few years shy of reaching his mother’s tenure as a school teacher.

The late Margaret Gray taught fourth grade, beginning at the age of 19, for 47 years.

Bill Gray? Only a “mere” 43 years are under his belt, each and every day in the Obion County School System, specifically in South Fulton.

He graduated from South Fulton High School in 1973, one of the Valedictorians that year, and continued his education at the University of Tennessee at Martin. After he earned his degree there, and began to search out options in the workforce, as luck would have, or as Mr. Gray would most likely attribute it, because of Divine Intervention, Mrs. Mary Winston opted for a leave of absence in August of 1977.

“I needed a job and had put my application in everywhere,” Mr. Gray said.

He took what he thought would be a temporary position, for Mrs. Winston, but a year later, she decided she was going to retire. He was first in line for the job, as his first year to teach full time included a day of one history class, two science classes and four study halls.

“Twice a day, in those study halls, there were 60 kids in that room. One of those study halls, I happen to notice a boy in the back of the classroom, whose shirt was twisting and turning, underneath. Come to find out, he had a pet snake under his shirt,” Gray recalled.

His first choice for his collegiate field of study was not teaching. He remembers how his mother offered words of advice, when he considered a major in education, urging him to reconsider, as at that time, the pay for teachers barely supported a family.

“So, I thought I will start out with accounting. It didn’t take me very long to realize that was not going to be a good idea,” he said.

He always kept in the back of his mind, afternoons spent, at a young age, in his mother’s fourth grade classroom, as he waited for her to complete her school day. He remembered observing how she interacted with her students, and the smile on their faces when they pleased her by catching on to a lesson.

There were times in the evening when Bill would help his mother prepare spelling lessons for her class, or read from the social studies book and then compile questions for quizzes.

Teaching would eventually win out, and specifically teaching history, for Bill.

Those who know Mr. Gray, those who have been taught history by him, would no doubt correctly provide an answer for his favorite subject.

“The Civil War and World War II, those two eras helped define our nation. I love to study about them and so do the students,” he said.

More than just words on a page, or a chronology on a timeline, Bill Gray engaged his students using hands on methods, challenged them to dig deeper and delve into the people, places and events which lead up to, became engrained in and resulted from those monumental milestones of American History.

The legendary “Civil War Folders”, wherein dozens of essays, photographs, battlefield sights, skirmishes and more were cataloged into a montage of story telling and trivia, have become keepsakes to hundreds of students who first chose their “side”, the Union or the Confederacy, as their topic. The grade for the time consuming, stringently researched project could make or break a report card. A check list was provided by Mr. Gray, to each student, as to mandatory entries within the “book” with extra credit earned for a visit to a battlefield, or the use of creativity.

A coveted “A++” earned bragging rights.

Another classroom favorite was a game of “Jeopardy”, one Gray fashioned from the network game show. Names were drawn for teams of three who would battle within the class period for a victory in the “bracket”.

“I would hear some of the kids telling the others, they better be studying tonight because we were going to play Jeopardy the next day and they better know those answers so their team could advance on the bracket,” he said.

Classroom management was a key element for Gray, especially in his early years.

“Mr. James Faulkner, my first Principal, advised me to maintain discipline and order first. I did that, and you know, I never really had any kind of discipline problem in my classroom,” he said.

He did remember during his first year of teaching, he was faced with an unanticipated challenge, when a bright young student, middle school age, approached him about problems at home.

“Those types of things are the things you don’t learn about at UTM, as far as how to teach. Kids, so often, want attention from teachers. They want to feel like they are being recognized. I used to end up giving my students nick-names a lot. It got to where just about all the kids would ask me when I was going to give them a nick-name. But, my first year, there was this student, great student, always did the right thing, made great grades. One day, this student came to my classroom door, in tears. It was terrible, to hear, that the mother in that home was having some bad issues, and this student was faced with the responsibility of always having to take care of younger siblings and make sure they had what they needed. I suggested talking to the grandparents, and seeing if they could help with the situation, and finally, there was some help. But that was something, as a 22-year old teacher, I really didn’t know how to handle,” Gray said.

In addition to U.S. History, Gray taught dual credit history for Juniors, and in what he referred to as the “old way” of remote learning, and teaching, he simultaneously taught students at South Fulton and at Obion County Central High School, through the use of video cameras placed within each classroom in both locations to allow him to teach and interact with all students.

He also taught Tennessee History, U.S. Government and Econ, and formulated a Citizenship test required for students to pass in order to graduate.

Another important lady in Mr. Gray’s life also chose teaching as her profession, at times setting up class in the room next door. His wife, Katie, taught for 35 years at South Fulton before she retired. The couple not only taught side by side but worked side by side in the family’s real estate and auction business.

“When I first started teaching and we got married, I brought home $510 a month. So, I also needed to work another part time job, which I did, at a service station three nights a week. At that time, my dad and I were still doing our own farming, too, and I was trying to get started with my coin shop and card shop. And then, I was trying to finish graduate school, too. Now, Katie probably wasn’t too happy about me doing all that at that time, when we first got married. But I just felt like I had to do it, to provide,” he said.

Now that he is retired, Mr. Gray will plan to visit his six grandchildren, ages two to 13, more and continue to engage in his buying and selling of coins, and once the pandemic subsides, he hopes he and Katie can travel.

With well over 50 years in the school system, combining his years of study there, with his years of teaching, he said he will miss the interaction with the students.

“All of my career, within the entire school system, from the Superintendents, fellow teachers, on down to the students and their parents, it has been so nice. I have loved it. I really thought I would have probably taught a few more years, but with all the technology advancements, I just would not want to be the ‘weak link’ in that area. I think technology is very important, very much so for the students. I also think, too, I don’t want to see students lose the ‘old’ skills. Really, with the Covid-19 outbreak, I just thought, maybe now would be a good time to go ahead and retire,” he said.

He describes teaching as a most rewarding profession and said he would encourage anyone giving the career thought, to follow that dream, only as long as the love for it remains.

“I just love it. I always tried to remember that if I was bored with something in the classroom, the students were probably bored, too. All students don’t learn the same, and all teachers don’t teach the same. I would always hope that our school system will continue with what it has allowed me to do all these years, and that is to protect the creativity of the teachers. We need that,” he said.