Often when a name goes up on a building, it honors a politician or benefactor.
While we take issue with naming buildings for politicians still in office, certainly there is nothing wrong with honoring the generosity of benefactors and politicians, who served with distinction.
But not all buildings are named in honor of the rich and/or powerful.
This week Mississippi University for Women announced it will name two of its buildings for people who don’t fit that description.
Alma Turner did not amass great wealth and Eugenia Summer did not acquire political power.
Yet there is something especially gratifying that these two should be chosen for this distinct honor.
Turner’s name will adorn the former Demonstration School building, where she served as a teacher and principal for 18 years. Summer’s name will be enshrined on The W’s Art and Design building, where she served as a driving force in the university’s arts programs for 40 years.
These distinctions were not given them simply based on tenure. Rather, it is what each woman — both MUW alumnae — contributed over that long span that elevates them to a place of honor.
Turner is now 70 and recently retired after working at Mississippi State University’s Early Childhood Education Center. She left the Dem School, as it came to be known, in 1995. The school closed in 2005.
Summer, who died in April at age 92, retired from The W in 1987.
That both educators would be chosen for these honors strongly suggests that their impact has endured long after they left campus.
Turner said she always felt a thrill each morning as she headed off to the Dem School. That enthusiasm, that passion, proved contagious. During her time at the school, she helped create an environment for a love of learning that encouraged students and engaged parents. Those qualities helped make the Dem School a model elementary school.
The school’s alumni hold an enduring affection one rarely associates with an elementary school.
There can be little doubt that Turner’s loving devotion to her students, parents, faculty and school helped create that wonderful learning environment.
Summer, meanwhile, was an institution in her own right.
Almost 30 years after she retired, she is still held in awe by those she taught — and taught with — during her 40 years in The W’s art department as a teacher and administrator.
Larry Feeney, who taught with Summer for 20 year at The W, remembers her as a remarkable force, someone who seemed up to any challenge. She was a gifted, diverse artist with a talent for teaching and relating to students. She was an able administrator as well. As Feeney observed, Summer was a person of ideas rather than opinions. Her impact on the university and the students whose lives she touched is hard to measure.
Teachers, even the best teachers, often perform their important work in the shadows. A politician or benefactor may be accustomed to the tributes of their communities. But those bouquets rarely come the teacher’s way.
And yet they labor on, they strive and succeed with little incentive outside their own passion for teaching and shaping young lives.
That is why we are especially pleased when buildings are named for such dedicated public servants.
Turner and Summer have earned this honor.
And we are pleased that MUW has acknowledged their contributions.
Well done.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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