Biographical Text
Professor Emeritus of Language, Reading and Exceptionalities Thomas Winston Childress (September 22, 1929-), was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He and his sister, Janice, were the children of Pauline Willoughby and Herman W. Childress. His family moved to Miami, Florida, in 1942 and he entered the public schools in Dade County. Childress attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he earned a B.A. degree in history (1952). He received a Master of Religious Education Degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in May 1956, and a Master of Science Degree in elementary curriculum from Barry College in Miami Shores, Florida, in 1968. In 1976, he was awarded his Ph.D. degree in reading education from the Florida State University in Tallahassee. His dissertation was titled "Similarities and Differences of Achieving and Non-Achieving Title I Students in Grades Three and Six." Dr. Childress did additional graduate study at the University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University, and Appalachian State University. Childress enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps while pursuing his undergraduate studies at the University of Florida. On the same day he received his B.A. degree he earned a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Army and had orders to active duty in the Field Artillery. After completing a battery officer's course at the artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he had a short tour of duty at Fort Rucker, Alabama, before being sent to Korea. Lieutenant Childress was assigned to the Fifteenth Artillery Battalion of the Second Infantry Division in Korea. He served as a forward artillery observer assigned to the Ninth Infantry Regiment and saw combat (summer 1953) in the Chorwan and Kumhwa valleys. He was promoted to first lieutenant and received the Bronze Star Medal for his combat service in Korea in 1954. From 1956 to 1963, Childress was an education director of Baptist churches in Georgia and Florida. He taught in the Dade County public elementary schools during 1963-68 before becoming a reading clinician at the Northwest Reading Center in Miami. In this position, he diagnosed and remediated severe reading problems of children, developed individualized reading materials and teaching methods, and taught reading correction courses to teachers. He worked as a reading teacher and specialist for the Dade County school system until 1973, when he became a center coordinator for the Tallahassee Literacy Council. While working towards his doctoral degree, he was a graduate assistant at the Florida State University, and after completing his program, he held the faculty position of research associate, acting as consultant for reading with Florida's Right-to-Read Program. Childress joined the faculty at Appalachian State University in 1976 as an assistant professor of reading education; he became an associate professor in 1979 and received tenure in 1981. He served as chair of the Department of Reading Education from 1982 to 1985 and was appointed professor when the department changed to the Department of Language, Reading, and Exceptionalities in 1985. During his academic career, Childress served as a reading consultant to the mainstreaming project in the College of Learning and Human Development and as developer and editor of Appalachian Reading, a quarterly newsletter that was mailed to every reading teacher and every school in the state. In addition, he coordinated the annual reading symposium and served as member of and consultant to the Adult Basic Skills Staff Development Project. He worked with the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction's Quality Assurance Program and the Educational Testing Service as an evaluator of the agency's National Teacher's Examination. In 1985, Dr. Childress' regional service included consulting with Stokes County schools in staff development on microcomputer use in the regular classroom. He was also consultant to the Buncombe County Chapter One Program, developing and implementing, with a colleague, a computer-managed instructional plan. Within the university, he served on the Academic Projects Advisory Board, the Developmental Education Study Committee, the Departmental Personnel Committee (chair), the Departmental Curriculum Review Committee (chair), the Faculty Development and Agenda Committee, the Administrative Council, the Computer Advisory Committee, and the Graduate Special Education Review Committee. He chaired the Teaching Evaluation Point System Committee and was also a member of the Teacher Education Council. Dr. Childress' publications include the following: • Adult Basic Skills Instructor Training Manual. With Randy Whitfield and Gerald L. Parker. North Carolina Department of Community Colleges and Appalachian State University, 1992. • "The Consumer in the Reading Class." Journal of North Carolina League of Middle/Junior High School, VI (1984). • Basic Concepts in Reading Education: A Viewing Guide to a Directed Reading Lesson. Boone, North Carolina: Center for Instructional development, Appalachian State University, 1982. • Word Recognition and Comprehension Skills, Florida Department of Education, Tallahassee, Florida, 1976. Dr. Childress also participated in the development of several instructional videos and guides and published training manuals for the Student Literacy Corps and for adult basic skills instructor training. Moreover, he made over fifty presentations at local, state, and national conferences and conducted over twenty-five workshops and institutes for adult basic skills instruction. He held memberships in numerous professional and academic organizations: the International Reading Council, College Reading Association, North Carolina Council of the International Reading Association, the STAR Reading Council of the International Reading Association (president), the Association of North Carolina College Professors of Reading (president), Phi Delta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Phi Mu Alpha. Childress met Betty Jo Gardner (November 4, 1932-), who was born in Gainesville, Florida, while they were students at the University of Florida. They were married in Lawton, Oklahoma, on August 31, 1952, while he was attending the field artillery school at Fort Sill. The couple has two sons, Thomas W., Jr., and Marcus D.; a daughter, Paula Childress Watkins; and four grandchildren. Paula has an undergraduate degree in recreation and Marcus has undergraduate and graduate degrees in music education from Appalachian State University. Dr. Childress retired from the university in June of 1995 and was awarded emeritus status at that time. Since retirement, Dr. Childress has enjoyed reading, computer surfing, genealogy, motor home travel, growing bromeliads, and public school volunteer work. Sources: Appalachian State University files and, personal correspondence. -Dr. Richard D. Howe
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