Waynesboro native honored for dedication to education

Rosa Standford

Rosa M. Standford, formerly of Waynesboro, will be honored at a luncheon at Chicago State Univ ersity May 18 for her 47 years of service in education.

Thirty- five of her 47 teaching years were in Chicago public schools.

In 1908, Ms. Standford was born in Waynesboro. Her parents were Eunice Kelsey Middleton and Charles Gray.

At the age of 11, she was sent to live with her great aunt in Chicago and later enrolled in college at Clark College, now known as Clark-Atlanta, where she majored in education.

In 1927 she completed her studies and within a few months she married George Standford, and moved to Burke County.

She taught third and fourth grades in a one-room school at Rock Creek from 1927-1933. Mrs. Rosa Standford said, "Times were hard and I made clothes for just about all my students and paid for the supplies, too. During that time it was hard to get black children to come to school every day. Most of them were out in the fields or working on the farm with their parents because the 'white man' needed another hand to help out. It was a mess … I tell you, a pure mess! But we did the best we could."

In 1934, when her husband was released from his military duty, they moved to his hometown of Chicago where he joined his father in the funeral home business. Mrs. Standford accepted a teaching position at Roosevelt High, and became the first woman of color at the school.

On the day of her interview at Roosevelt it rained. She forgot to take her rain hat off for the interview. The interviewer, Warren Moore, thought she was a white female and hired her on the spot. During the interview he gave her an application to fill out and told her he needed it within two weeks.

She turned in the application the first day of her job and he saw that she had circled 'colored' on the application and she said, "His eyes grew with great size. Looking at her he said, there's nothing we can do at this point and the rest is history."

Mrs. Standford remained a teacher at Roosevelt for 13 years. In 1943 she completed her masters in education specialist degree from Columbia Teachers College in New York. The following year she was named assistant principal to Brooks Academy High School where she served for seven years.

In 1954 after 27 years in the public school system she accepted the position as dean of administration at Chicago State College where she remained until she retired in 1974. During her many years in education she gave much of her time and contributed monetarily to help students who could not afford to further their education.

All seven of the Standfords' children attended college. They also assisted 32 other students in Atlanta, Chicago and New York to attend college.

"I never wanted to see a student with good educational qualities struggling to further their education. I did what God simply wanted me to do … help them."

Rosa Standford will turn 100 this August and she is still active in her community, enjoys reading and talking on the telephone to family and friends. She says, "I might be old but I ain't crazy!"