NEWBERRY — Members of the Newberry Academy Eagle family, past and present, came together at the Newberry College dining hall to pay tribute to four teachers, all of whom have retired in recent years.
The four had combined to teach for 143 years with 113 of those at Newberry Academy. The women were praised and roasted by retired headmaster Bob Dawkins and retired long term kindergarten director Martha Derrick.
Cynthia Lominack remembers well the day kindergarten director Martha Derrick showed up on her doorstep. Lominack’s daughter, Jenny, was a student at the kindergarten.
Derrick was not there to talk about Jenny. She came to offer Lominack a job as teacher for the new 3-year-old preschool class the school was starting. Lominack not only took the job, but stayed for 22 years teaching the youngest Newberry Academy students.
Derrick remembers fondly what a clean, well-run classroom Lominack kept and the fun things she did with her students, collecting water bottles and paper towel rolls to make boats and telescopes each October for Columbus Day.
“The children would pretend to discover America,” Derrick said.
Lominack, who retired in 2011, said she misses her students, but her two children, graduates of Newberry Academy, have given her six grandchildren to fill that space.
Linda Satterwhite became aware of an opening for a math teacher at Newberry Academy and after accepting the job she enrolled her own two children there. Her plan was to teach until her children left the school and then retire.
“But I taught 13 more years after they left, so I must have loved it,” she said.
Though Satterwhite also taught language and social studies classes, math was her passion. That passion came through in the successes of her students, who scored well on standardized testing in math, and of the math team she led each year, which was among the best in their private school division.
“Linda was old school,” said Dawkins. “She taught with pencil and paper and a blackboard, and with very little use of calculators. And her students learned.”
Satterwhite retired in 2014 and, though she, too, sometimes misses the job, she is enjoying focusing her time on being a wife and mother and grandmother.
Fifth-grade teacher Shirley Mills was another “old school” legend at Newberry Academy. She was tough on her students, giving a lot of homework and making them earn their grades. But she loved them and loved her job.
Mills’s tough love also translated into success for her students.
“Her students’ language arts scores were always impressive,” Dawkins said.
Mills had two sons at Newberry Academy when she started teaching there.
“I loved being able to take them to school with me each day and bring them home,” she said.
Like Satterwhite, she continued her career at the school long after her sons had left. And it was a rich experience for her.
“I will always remember the friendships I formed at Newberry Academy,” she said.
Betty Moseley served 30 years at Newberry Academy — not in the classroom but in the band room. She started the school’s first marching band program and saw it through many successful years. Dawkins remembered that very first year’s Christmas concert, when the students had been practicing their instruments for only a few months.
“To the surprise and delight of everyone there, they actually played music,” he said.
Within four years, this fledgling group of musicians became a marching band, performing in parades in full uniform.
Dawkins also remembered a tougher time near the end of Moseley’s career. Her students called the office in a panic. Moseley had fallen. At the hospital, she learned that, at 81 years old, she had a sizable brain tumor.
“I thought her career was over,” Dawkins said. To his amazement, she showed up the next fall ready to lead the band again.
“It’s always been my passion to teach boys and girls how to blow a horn and how to beat a drum,” said Moseley.
Her 30 years at the Academy followed almost 15 years of teaching band in public school. Moved by her dedication, the crowd gave Moseley a standing ovation.