Charles W. Richards. Like
other of the progressive counties of Oklahoma, Carter County has
signalized its civic loyalty and popular appreciation of true
valuations by enlisting in the service of its public schools the
interposition of an able and vigorous chief executive and a corps of
efficient assistants–the teachers in the various schools of the
county. He whose name introduces this paragraph is giving a most
effective administration in the office of superintendent of the
public schools of Ardmore, the metropolis and county seat, and has
proved himself one of the able representatives of the pedagogic
profession in this favored young commonwealth.
Charles Walter
Richards was born at Sumach, Murray County, Georgia, on the 10th of
October, 1S77, and is a scion of stanch old southern stock on both
the paternal and maternal sides. He is a son of William M. and Mary
(Hawkins) Richards, the former a native of Georgia and the latter of
Tennessee. The father, who was born in 1852, has been a resident of
Georgia during virtually his entire life and has there been actively
and successfully identified with the great basic industry of
agriculture. He and his wife still maintain their home at Sumach,
that state, and he is one of the substantial landholders and
representative agriculturists of Murray County–a citizen of very
high standing in the community. He has always been zealous in his
advocacy of the cause of the democratic party and takes lively
interest in the questions and issues of the day. He has long been
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and served many terms as
master of his lodge. For the past thirty years he has been a deacon
of the Baptist Church, of which his wife likewise is a devoted and
zealous member. Of their children the eldest is Charles W., subject
of this sketch; Freling was born in 1879 and died at Sumach, Georgia,
in 1899; Warren B. is actively identified with
agricultural pursuits in his native
county, near the Village of Sumach; Grover C. is a successful teacher
in the schools of Whitfield County, Georgia; James L. H. resides at
Eton, Georgia, and is devoting his attention to farming and to
teaching in the public schools; Leach H. is a member of the class of
1917 in the college at Rome, Georgia; and
May is a teacher in the schools of Deep Springs, that state.
After making good
use of the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native
village Charles W. Richards there entered Sumach Academy, in which he
was graduated in 1898. In pursuance of his higher academic studies ho
thereafter continued a student in turn in the normal school
maintained in the City of Nashville, Tennessee, under endowment from*
the Peabody fund, and in the University of Nashville, in which he was
graduated as a member of the class of 1903 and from which he received
his degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1905 he completed an effective
post-graduate course in historic old Harvard University, in which he
specialized in pedagogy, under the preceptorship of Doctor Hanus.
Prior to his
graduation in the University at Nashville Mr. Richards had devoted
himself to teaching in the rural schools of his native state, and his
experience in this field covered a period of four years. In 1903 he
assumed the position of principal of the high school at Springfield,
Tennessee, and of this office he continued the incumbent until 1907.
Thereafter he served as superintendent of schools at Princeton,
Kentucky, until 1911, in the autumn of which year he came to Oklahoma
and assumed his present position, that of superintendent of the city
schools of Ardmore. Here his work has been marked by progressiveness,
high executive and didactic efficiency, and his administration has
been accorded unequivocal popular approval and support. Under his
supervision are six schools, fifty-two teachers and 2,500 students’,
and his work has been fruitful in bringing the Ardmore school up to a
specially high standard of efficiency.
Mr. Richards is
essentially an enthusiast in his chosen profession, and has the happy
faculty of infusing enthusiasm in both teachers and pupils working
under his direction. He is an appreciative and valued member of the
Oklahoma State Teachers’ Association and is actively identified also
with the National Education Association, besides which he is vice
president from Oklahoma of the National Federation of State Teachers’
Associations, and is in active fellowship with the National
Geographical Society.
Mr. Richards swerves
not in his allegiance to the democratic party, though he is too
thoroughly en rapport with the work of his chosen profession to have
any predilection for the activities of so-called practical politics.
Both he and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist Church at
Ardmore, and in the same he is serving as superintendent of the
Sunday school. He is affiliated with Ardmore Lodge No. 31, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, and other bodies of the York Rite, and in
the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry he has received the
thirty-second degree and is affiliated with Indian Consistory No. 2
in the City of McAlester. He holds membership in Ardmore Lodge No.
648, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Ardmore Camp of the
Woodmen of the World, besides which he formerly maintained active
affiliation with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows.
Reverting to the
family history of Mr. Richards, it may be noted that he is a direct
descendant from William Richards, who immigrated from Wales to
America and settled at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he married
Miss Mary Ball. He became a wine importer in Pennsylvania and owned a
fleet of ships, and was a resident of
Philadelphia at the time of his death. In 1800 he leased in that city
a large portion of the land now represented by Chestnut and Walnut
streets, this lease having been made tor a period of ninety-nine
years. From the old Keystone State certain of his descendants
eventually removed to the South, and the subject of this review is
descended from one who established the Georgia branch of the family.
On Christmas day of
the year 1905, at Springfield, Tennessee, was solemnized the marriage
of Charles W. Richards to Miss Anna Corinue White, daughter of Dr.
Alpheus G. White, who is now living retired at that place, he being a
dentist by profession. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have one child, Charles
Walter, Jr., who was born on the 10th of October, 1912.