Viola Boddie: Belle of the Early Faculty

A native of North Carolina, Viola Boddie (1864 – 1940) was a charter faculty member of the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial School (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). Graduating at the top of her class at Peabody Teachers College in Nashville, Tennessee, her diverse teaching experience gave her a deep understanding of the poor conditions of education in North Carolina. Miss Boddie traversed the state in an open carriage pulled by a mule, exploring country school houses that had such wide gaps between the log construction that you could “throw a cat through, if not a dog.”i  Considered a pioneer of early women’s education, she worked with “early radicals,” Charles Duncan McIver and Edward Alderman to open State Normal and Industrial School, the first public college for women in North Carolina.

Miss Viola Boddie

At the age of 25, she accepted the position of head of the Department of Latin at State Normal – a title she would hold for the next 43 years. Miss Boddie seemed a very romantic figure to the young women in her charge. They found her beautiful and her mode of dress very stylish. Her students knew that she had turned away many gentleman callers, and they even imagined she might be in love with President McIver.ii In the early years, Miss Boddie hosted parties for her students and was known for her love of flowers, which she always kept in her classroom. Her graciousness, wit, and interest in world affairs, made her a very popular teacher, but she tended to be more reserved than some of her colleagues and was considered a taskmaster who broached no nonsense in her classroom. 

A Faculty Outing with Miss Boddie (top left), Dr. McIver, Miss Petty, and Miss Mendenhall

Until 1914, Latin was required to gain an A.B. degree at the college; therefore, for almost half of the registered students, the coursework was mandatory. By 1919, Latin became an elective and enrollment dropped substantially. Although Miss Boddie blamed the falling numbers on the elective system, others believed that the drop reflected the professor’s increasingly harsh, sarcastic manner and “fearsome disposition.” Her popularity began to wane and she was relieved of her dormitory duties in 1918. She began to be viewed as “behind the times” by both the administration and the students. As the college grew in both size and viewpoints, many felt that restrictions on student privileges should be loosened, yet Miss Boddie led the charge to keep the more traditional values of the school’s early years. Additionally, she was not inclined to collaborate with other campus departments, believing in such cases, there was a “danger of the big fishes devouring the little fishes whenever departments were asked to work in tandem.”iii 

The Always Fashionable Miss Boddie

Eventually, there was talk of replacing her; yet, Miss Boddie was not going to make it easy for administration to do so. In 1926, when a new teacher, Marie Deneen, was hired to teach Latin, Miss Boddie used her position as head of the department to block college credit for the new professor’s classes. As the years went by, the Latin Department had progressively fewer students, reflecting both a national trend and Miss Boddie’s increasingly contentious personality. By 1934, she agreed to partial retirement, only teaching one course, and took permanent retirement the next year. Soon after, the Latin Department was folded into the new Department of Classical Civilization, headed by Dr. Charlton Jernigan, a dynamic young professor from Duke University. Miss Boddie passed away in 1940 and was buried in Nashville.

i Greensboro News, October 11, 1925
ii Trelease, Allen W. Making North Carolina Literate: The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from Normal School to Metropolitan University. (2004)
iii Ibid.

The First Reunion of the Class of 1585

In 1926, the alumnae of the North Carolina College for Women (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) were making plans for their class reunions. As these preparations were being made, it occurred to some of the alumnae that the celebration should include those students who had attended the woman’s college but had never graduated, or were never officially associated with a reunion class. This honorary group was christened the “Class of 1585.” This unusual name was a reference to the state’s early history, when Sir Richard Grenville’s English ships landed on the coast of what is now North Carolina.

The first “reunion” of the Class of 1585 was held on June 5, 1926, during the celebration of Alumnae Day. To mark the occasion, there was a luncheon given in the Spencer Residence Hall dining room. In keeping with the 1585 theme, large centerpieces were fashioned in the image of Elizabethan ships. The tables were decorated with vases of daises (the school flower), with individual blossoms spelling out 1585 – 1926. For a special remembrance of the day, guests were presented with a small booklet created by students in the college’s art department. On the cover was a hand-drawn representation of a ship being greeted by a young Native American woman, while the interior contained the day’s program and a photograph of the guests of honor. Those being honored were administrators, professors, and staff members associated with the college’s early history. They included Miss Viola Boddie, Miss Laura Coit, Mr. Edward Forney, Dr. Julius Foust, Dr. Anna Gove, Miss Minnie Lou Jamison, Mrs. Lula McIver, and Miss Mary Petty.

Over ninety guests were entertained with a program which paid tribute to the eight guests of honor. Continuing the theme of settling a new land, these educators were represented as champions of learning and “rescuers of the maidens” held captive by ignorance. In thanks, their former students presented them with “love, loyalty, reverence, and gratitude.” The luncheon’s entertainment also included a song by Miss Molly Matheson Boren and a commemorative verse by Miss Eleanor Watson Andrews, as well as Miss Vaughn White Holoman’s “series of word pictures sketched with the delicacy and precision of a cameo, [of] the eight ‘founders’ of the ‘settlement.’”


The moving program ended with each attendee drawing the name of one of the eight honorees and completing the phrase, “What we really want to tell you…” on a small sheet of paper. These kind thoughts were later collected and incorporated into a commemorative book. The event concluded with the guests toasting the Class of 1585 with best wishes and the hope that the tradition would persist.  For the next several years, the Class of 1585 continued to hold alumnae luncheons with the other college classes, but by the 1930s, this seems to have come to an end. Only one of the hand-drawn booklets survives as a testament of the class’s first reunion held on that June day in 1926.

“Opportunity Doesn’t Take 3 Months Off”: Early Summer School on Campus

Summer Session Brochure

Summer classes have existed on The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) campus since 1898, when Miss Viola Boddie began to teach a summer course in Latin because many of her students feared that they might have to repeat the class during their senior year.  However, the first true summer session was held in 1912, with 416 young women attending a single eight week session. The program was so popular that it quickly expanded to two six-to-eight week sessions. College president Julius Foust established the summer school program to meet a variety of educational needs, targeting college students who wanted to earn graduate or undergraduate credit or who could not attend full time; high school students who were preparing for college; wives and mothers who were interested in home economics classes; and teachers who needed advanced college courses or special subject expertise.  There were a wide range of course offerings including home economics, art, garden design, plant culture, and music.

Call for Teachers

However, the primary focus of the summer sessions was on pedagogy, reflecting the original vision of the college.  The sessions were divided into two categories, college courses and teacher training courses, with the addition of a Teacher’s Institute and a ‘Home Makers’ and Rural School Conference added at the end of July. While registration and tuition were free, attendees were required to pay room and board on campus, which was intentionally kept as reasonably priced as possible.  Summer sessions also featured special lectures, concerts and recitals, round table discussions, and “recreation and entertainment.” The college encouraged enrollment by stressing the beauty, amenities, and comfort of the campus, yet upon arrival, attendees may have been surprised to find that they were subject to the some of the same rules and regulations as the full-time students. This included “lights out” at 11 pm, a limit of one minute telephone calls, and no delivery boys in the dormitories.

Summer Session Poster

By the early 1940s, summer school attendance had fallen to the point that the college questioned the practicality of keeping the campus open during the summer. Yet, during the years following World War II, enrollment quickly grew as the summer sessions began opening enrollment to men and married couples. Men had been allowed to enroll in the Teachers’ Institute since 1914, but by the 1940s, dormitory space was set aside to allow for a wider variety of attendees. Although courses had initially been offered free of charge, in the 1940s, the school began imposing a moderate registration fee with additional expenses for room, board, laundry, and labs. The summer program continued to grow in the 1950s, with students using summer courses to raise their grade point average or to accelerate their curriculum advancement. UNCG’s summer school program remains a strong part of the college curriculum, with over 13,500* students willing to sacrifice summer fun for academic enrichment!

*2010 statistics

Sue May Kirkland: lady principal and referee in all things social and domestic



Of all of the early faculty and staff of the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Susan Mary Kirkland was one of the most formidable. “Sue May” was born in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and educated at the Burwell School and the Nash and Kollock Select Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies which were located in her home town. She taught briefly at Peace College in Raleigh, and it was there that she met Charles Duncan McIver. When the State Normal and Industrial School opened in the fall of 1892, Miss Kirkland followed him there to take the position of Lady Principal. She held this position for twenty-two years.

Her formal responsibilities ranged from “custodian of manners and morals” to” referee in matters social and domestic,” but these descriptions belie the true impact that Miss Kirkland had on the school. On arrival at the college, the girls were immediately impressed by their Principal’s education, ladylike demeanor, silver tea set, and personal maid, Amanda. The general awe with which she was viewed caused students to liken her majestic appearance to Queen Victoria, but her strong character, compassion, and caring nature inspired admiration and love from the many students in her care. One student, Phoebe Pegram, who had only had five days of formal education, recounted how Miss Kirkland had helped her learn how to talk and dress, even providing tutoring with her lessons. Valuable advice such as button your gloves, walk straight, and come back right after church, was also dispensed.

Although Miss Kirkland was a stickler for formalities such as proper dress and decorum, she also had a good sense of humor. Constantly correcting those who called her “Mrs. Kirkland,” she often reminded the uninformed that she was “Miss Kirkland, by choice.” Not that she was unsympathetic to the plight of her young charges to gain access to male company. Although school regulations determined that male visitors were restricted to holidays and other structured times, girls managed to develop romances under her care. On one occasion, Miss Kirkland and Miss Viola Boddie, another unmarried faculty member, were visiting in a parlor across the hall from where students were entertaining several young men. Miss Boddie commented disapprovingly that when she was young, she was never allowed to receive gentlemen callers without a chaperone. Miss Kirkland pointed out, “My mother did the same thing - and see what it did for us!”

Sadly, Miss Kirkland died unexpectedly on June 8, 1914 while visiting her sister in Raleigh. Subsequently, a campus dormitory was named in her honor. This Craftsman style building, located at the current site of the Moran Commons and Plaza, was torn down in 1964.