Published: August 23, 2008 04:33 pm            

Larue Barnes: The enabler

By the time Earl Wall was a sixth grader in Star, a small community southeast of Brownwood, he knew he wanted to become an attorney.

One college professor changed all that.

Wall, a retired Cleburne High School government teacher was born March 9, 1948.

He was a perfectionist, even in childhood. He planned everything over and over again.

With no brothers or sisters, he had plenty of time to think while working on his family’s ranch.

Wall said, “I worked side by side with my parents, C.W. and Carmen Wall, mending fences, working cattle and doing ranch chores. My dad was a wise man who didn’t talk much. My mother was one of the best cooks in the community.

“During my free time, my favorite pastimes were riding horses, swimming in the creek and climbing a mountain that overlooked a beautiful valley. I thought about everything up there — my career plans, politics and life in general. You name it, I probably thought about it on that mountain.

“I was shy. I wanted to do well, and I brought to myself a lot of self-induced stress, I think.”

Earl was an excellent student and played sports at Star — six-man football, basketball, baseball. Like most rural school students, he was involved in all activities.

He also desiree to live up to his family’s good name.

In 1885, the Wall Ranch covered many acres. Earl’s grandfather, Walter Graham Wall, was one of the founders of the Texas Livestock Auction Barn Association.

“As a cowboy, my grandfather, on horseback, drove his cattle from Mills and San Saba counties to the Fort Worth Stockyards. I wish I could’ve known him, but he died before I was born. Others told me he was truly a great man whose word was his bond.

“Everyone in the Star community referred to my grandmother, Elma, as ‘Mother Wall.’ As a young child, this puzzled me. I knew there were only a few Wall relatives left, and I could not understand why total strangers called her that.

“Turns out she and Grandfather had financially supported many people during the Great Depression, many of them strangers. They had given them food, jobs and shelter, even when they did not need additional ranch hands and were in a financial bind, themselves.”

Earl’s mother had planned to attend North Texas Teacher’s College until the Depression hit. Her family no longer had money to send her, and her career plans were dashed. His father dropped out of high school after his junior year to help support his family on the ranch.

“From the time that I was born, my parents decided that I would get a college education. They wanted me to have the opportunities that they never had,” Walls said.

Wall loved school from the beginning at Star, with Miss Laura Virden as his teacher.

“She had first- and second-grade students in one room,” Wall said. “There were about 25 of us. As I look back, I can’t believe all that she taught us. In first grade we learned multiplication, division, reading; we even diagrammed sentences.”

Luckily, Earl’s grandmother loved to read to him, making learning pleasurable. Not every child in Star had that background, he said.

“Whenever a student said it was hard for them, Miss Virden would smile and say in a loving voice, ‘You will learn it if you intend to be promoted to the next grade.’

“And we did.”

He was among 14 in his 1966 graduating class, the largest class in school.

“After high school, I commuted to Howard Payne University,” he said. “I had passed the LSAT after two years there and was planning to attend Baylor University and become an attorney. Things were working out just as I had planned.”

Then Wall met Dr. H. L. Cravens, Jr., a government professor at HPU.

“Dr. Cravens taught United States government in a dynamic style, with such enthusiasm and knowledge that he made learning easy and fun.” Wall said. “I admired the man so much, I changed my degree plan to political science and placed my law career on hold.

“I wanted to work in government. The political scene intrigued me, and I wanted to become part of it, not as a politician but as a professional political scientist.”

Wall received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970, graduating from the Douglas McArthur Academy of Freedom at HPU with a composite degree in social studies.

At Sam Houston State University, Wall chose to major in political science. As a graduate fellow there, he received his Master of Arts degree in 1972.

“I was offered a Ph.D. scholarship to Oklahoma State by my supervising professor, but I turned it down. I was eager to go to Washington and try to change government policies.”

Wall had been promised a job as a congressional staffer if a certain candidate won his election to Congress. He smiled.

“My candidate lost the election in a close race, and that dream went down in flames.”

In 1972, Wall sold insurance for the Texas Farm Bureau.

“I made good money,” he said. “But it wasn’t for me.”

After several months without work, Wall decided to teach. He took the most difficult assignment imaginable, Mountain View State School for Boys in Gatesville. Its students were murderers, rapists and armed robbers, ages 12 to 21. Some were as old as 28, having lied about their age to stay out of prison.

Wall was among 70 instructors to the 450 inmates at the fully accredited K-12 school located on a 54 acre campus. It was fenced twice and topped by razor wire. The facility is now Texas Women’s Maximum Security Prison.

Those who were illiterate were taught to read on the kindergarten level.

Others graduated from high school and were sent off to college or trade school.

But some chose to major in intimidation.

Wall said, “I was told that my life would be threatened; that was standard procedure. One student told me privately, ‘You have two weeks to live. I am going to kill you.’

“I looked up his offense and found that he had killed his school principal and laughed at him as he was dying.”

Each day the boy reminded Wall of the number of days he had left.

“Finally, I told him that everybody had to die sometime.”

Then the student whispered, “Tomorrow’s the day.”

“It was hard to go to school that day,” Wall said. “He approached me at the end of class and said, ‘I was just joking. You’re a pretty good guy. I guess I’ll let you live.’”

But the encounter with the student was not over. Wall wanted to help him.

“He was brilliant. I began to take him out on Saturdays and let him drive my new sports car. We went to movies and shopping in Waco. Then he asked to go visit a friend who had been released. I felt real uncomfortable with that, as the friend was a convicted arsonist and a real thug, but I knew it meant a lot to him, so I took him.

“Later, I learned he had boasted that he was going to hit me in the head, steal my car and escape. But he chose not to do that — I think because I let him drive my car. I hope he got his life together. Somehow I feel that he did.”

Wall said he had to learn the different languages of prison culture.

“You had to learn what their slang meant. If you could earn the respect of the gangs’ leaders and get their cooperation, then you had fewer problems in class.”

Although a stressful time, Wall said he believes they reached many of the boys there. That experience made his transition to public school an easy one.

“I taught at Rio Vista High School from 1974 until the spring of 1982. I loved it there. I taught history and government, coached tennis, although I knew little about it at first, and drove a school bus. I started the Beta Club, an honor society, and coached and directed their first one-act play, and even sponsored the Rodeo Club so that some of the students could compete.

“I really liked getting to know the students. The school had a system that I liked, in that you started out as freshman class sponsor and moved up with that class until they graduated. I did that with two graduating classes; they were my ‘kids.’ I enjoy attending their class reunions every five years. I’m honored that they still think of me.”

Wall was a confirmed bachelor until he met his future wife, Avis Sugarek of San Angelo.

“Earl’s cousin was my friend. She and her husband insisted that Earl come and meet me.” Avis said.

“I had graduated from Beeville High school, Del Mar Junior College and Texas Tech. After doing my medical technology internship at Shannon West Texas Memorial Hospital in San Angelo, I continued to live and work there.”

“My cousin and her husband got the flu and weren’t able to go with me to Avis’s apartment,” Earl said. “There I was. I had driven all that way with an address written on a piece of paper, and she didn’t answer the door.

“Thinking I might be a little early, I killed some time and tried it again. She answered the door — the rest is history.”

“We had a lot in common,” Avis said. “We both had rural backgrounds, and Earl was easy to talk with. He seemed a little surprised that I chose to go to Luby’s Cafeteria instead of a fancy restaurant, I think.”

They wrote each other, and he called and drove to see her as often as possible. They both remember the first time he took her home to meet his parents.

“I didn’t know until his father’s funeral that Mr. Wall had told Earl privately, ‘Son, I think she’s a keeper,’” she said.

A year later, Earl took his mother to a craft show, and she confided, “Don’t you think it’s about time you gave Avis a ring?”

He smiled.

“I told Mother I’d already done that, and we were getting married in a week and invited her to the wedding. She was shocked speechless.”

Avis resigned as head of the hematology department at Texas Memorial, and moved to Cleburne after they married Jan. 2, 1982.

Earl finished the year at Rio Vista High, and she worked at Medical Arts Clinic.

Later, she worked in the laboratory at Kimbro Clinic from 1988 until 1997. For four years she supervised the medical laboratory for Dr. Mary Milam, an oncologist in Fort Worth. She was hematology supervisor in the lab at Walls Hospital until 2005.

For 27 years Earl Wall called Cleburne High School home. He inspired his students to actually enjoy learning government, American history, economics and cultural history. As chairman of the social studies department, he made events “come alive” by having themed days with costumes. He was curriculum committee chairman for the Texas Council of Social Studies and served on several state committees under the Texas Education Agency.

Under Wall’s leadership, CHS students won two top awards presented by the state organization — Outstanding Student Council and Sweepstakes Award for the past five years. He co-directed Golden Girl pageants with Donna Turner.

He became the students’ enabler.

Through his motivation and coaching, students developed leadership skills and became involved in service projects.

He started the Beta Club and served as a state and national sponsor and committee member. He encouraged his students to run successfully for office. He tackled the discipline necessary as freshman, sophomore and junior dean.

Fantasyland became temporary reality at CHS Junior-Senior Proms during his watch as Junior Class sponsor.

“Fellow-teachers Mary Parvin and Ann Walker and I worked well together,” he said. “We had some prom themes that won national honors — Ancient Egypt, the Orient, and the Secret Garden, in which we converted the Commons Area of the high school cafeteria into a pond with 100 live gold fish.

“We only lost one.”

Wall was chosen Teacher of the Year at Rio Vista and at Cleburne High School by his colleagues. One of the highlights of his career was his selection to attend the Supreme Court Summer Institute held at Washington, D.C., at the Georgetown Law University in 1997.

“I spent two weeks studying the Supreme Court, observing the court in session, and treasured four hours in a private session with Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.”

No doubt, while there, he remembered his dreams of childhood and how a college professor opened doors he never knew existed.

He retired from CHS in June, and continues to teach government part time at Johnson County Campus of Hill College, where he has served since 1982. The Walls are active members of First Baptist Church in Cleburne.

They have one daughter, Emily, a 2003 CHS graduate. She received her master’s degree from Texas A&M University in 2008 and married Aaron Hogan on July 12. They live in College Station, where she is an accountant, and he is a Texas A&M Consolidated High School English teacher.

“When I look back over the 37 years that I taught, I remember teachers, administrators, and students who blessed my life,” Wall said. “Seeing the amazing expression on a student’s face when he or she finally grasps a difficult concept and watching my students’ futures become successful realities, those were the two greatest rewards of my teaching career.”

Enablers are like that.



Larue Barnes may be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com.

        

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