Draft:Cornelia Storrs Adair

Cornelia Storrs Adair (born November 9, 1884) was an educator and the first classroom teacher elected to serve as president (1927–1928) of the National Education Association. She "opposed discriminatory practices such as the exclusion of married women from the classroom and unequal pay scales for male and female teachers." [This sentence is repeated below -- NEED TO FIX.]

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Early life

Adair was a daughter of Lewis Cass Adair and Rebecca Sidney Taylor Adair. She graduated from Richmond (Virginia) High School. For 15 years beginning in 1904 she taught at Elba, Nicholson, Robert Fulton, and Bellevue elementary schools. She enrolled in the College of William and Mary in 1921 and graduated with an AB degree in 1923. She then taught at Bainbridge Junior High School and "in 1931 became principal of Franklin Elementary School (later Swansboro Elementary School)" until retiring in 1954.

Career

Adair served in numerous capacities on a variety of state and national educational organizations. For 25 year she led the committee on teacher retirement of the Virginia Education Association. She "opposed discriminatory practices such as the exclusion of married women from the classroom and unequal pay scales for male and female teachers." "in 1925 the Richmond School Board sent her as a delegate to the first biennial conference of the World Federation of Education Associations in Edinburgh, Scotland. She "served as president of the Richmond League of Teachers Associations for ten years", in 1919 "headed the National League of Teachers Associations", and in 1927 headed the National League of Classroom Teachers. She served as treasurer of the National Education Association for five years, then in 1927 "became the first classroom teacher ever elected to its presidency", reflecting "the growing importance and influence of teachers in national educational organizations. While president, she was awarded a doctor of pedagogy from the New York State Teacher's College.

She then returned to the classroom. While she emphasized drills in basic skills, she also advocated stimulating artistic and spiritual sides of children, arguing for symphony concerts. She supported universal education and working with "mentally and physically handicapped students", helping to found the Virginia Society for Crippled Children and Adults.

Adair was the "Richmond director of the federal government's Works Progress Administration Emergency Education Program, and from 1935 to 1937 she directed the National Youth Administration's Out-of-School Youth Program in Virginia." She was variously involved with the Delta Kappa Gamma teachers honorary society, the Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Richmond League of Women Voters, the National Education Association, the National Council for the Study of Education, the Consultation and Evaluation Clinic of the State Health Department, Goodwill Industries, the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, the Virginia Cancer Society, the American Association of University Women, the Presbyterian Church, and the Democratic Party.

"In 1934 she became the first woman to receive the Alumni Medallion from the College of William and Mary." The Cornelia Storrs Adair Gymnasium at the College of William and Mary opened in 1963; it later was renamed Adair Hall and in 2024 houses the Kinesiology and Dance Department.

NOTE FOR FURTHER WORK ON THIS PAGE: perhaps include portrait per: "In 1952 the Swansboro Citizens Association and the Franklin Parent Teacher Association commissioned Richmond artist David Silvette to paint an oil portrait of Adair for presentation to Franklin Elementary School."