Employee Profile
 Name: Pamela Smith
Title: Associate Professor/Program Coordinator, Developmental Reading
Length of service at the College: Two years as an adjunct, 20 years full time
Place of birth: I was born in the Wewoka, Oklahoma, hospital. My parents lived in a small community called Coon Holler, which was a suburb of Bowlegs, Oklahoma. For decades I thought Bowlegs was just a cowboy name, but I learned a couple of years ago that it was named after a famous Seminole Indian chief, Chief Bowlegs. I discovered this while doing research when my students were studying Cherokee history and culture. Oklahoma, of course, is the end of the Trail of Tears.
I grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, though. That is not an Indian name, but a Polish one. Thaddeus Kosciusko was a Polish general who came to Gen. George Washington’s aid during the Revolutionary War.
Family members: I have a son who is a pastry chef and chocolatier at Blackberry Farm Resort. I have a brother who lives in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, near where Chief Sequoyah settled when he moved there from East Tennessee. My brother breeds and trains thoroughbred racehorses. I once helped to birth a racehorse foal while visiting on his farm. It was amazing.
Something no one knows about you: My first teaching position was as a high school English teacher in Amory, Mississippi, near Tupelo, in the fall of 1967. Amory High School was integrating that semester, with five African-American students agreeing to attend the all-white high school. Three of the five students were in my classes. It was accomplished peacefully, without incident at a time when violence was all around us. I am proud to have played one very small part in abolishing segregation during the Civil Rights Movement.
 Greatest achievement or proudest moment: I am a founding member of a new church, Apostles Anglican Church. We are under the authority of the Bishop of Rwanda and part of the Anglican Mission in the Americas.
Favorite things outside work: Serving in my church; herb gardening; bird feeding and watching; occasionally eating fabulous gourmet meals cooked by my son and his girlfriend, who is a sommelier [wine steward] at Blackberry Farm; reading; visiting my family out west.
Most rewarding part of your job: I am absolutely thrilled when a student becomes engaged with a book and eagerly tells me how exciting a book was and how he or she just couldn’t put it down and read beyond the pages I assigned. I know that getting them hooked on reading will literally change the quality of their lives.
Most influential person in your life and why: My parents were equally influential in my life. They were children of the Great Depression, members of the Greatest Generation. They sacrificed so much to ensure that my younger brother and I got the college education they wish they’d had the opportunity for. I was the first in my family to get a college degree, and my brother was second. They were so successful—I’ve never stopped being in school!
Favorite quote: Here is one I discovered a couple years ago and am still meditating on:
"If your heart were right, then every created thing would be a mirror of life for you and a book of holy teaching, for there is no creature so small and worthless that it does not show forth the goodness of God.”—Thomas à Kempis, 15th century German Catholic monk |
