Biographical Text
Professor Emerita of Art Lorraine Stewart Force (October 20, 1924-), was born in Kansas City, Missouri. During her childhood, she was surrounded by art, music, and books. She feels that not entering formal education until the eighth grade was a clear advantage to her. She later attended high school in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she graduated at the age of sixteen. She studied at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1941. In 1943, she married Frank Force. During World War II, she served a brief stint redesigning control panels for airplanes. After the births of her two children, Nancy and Stewart, Force attended Southwest Missouri State College, Springfield, Missouri. In 1952, she graduated first in her class, magna cum laude, with a bachelor's degree in art education and English. That same year, Force was employed to teach art at Fort Lauderdale High School in Florida. In 1961, after 21,230 miles of commuting to the University of Miami, she received her master's degree in administration and supervision. In 1968, she earned her Ph.D. degree in art education and constructive design from Florida State University in Tallahassee. Dr. Force's teaching included seventeen years in Florida, first in Broward County in high school, middle school, and community college, then in north Florida at Madison Junior College, and then later as a teaching fellow at Florida State University. Dr. Force came to Appalachian State University in 1968 and served until her retirement in 1986. While at Appalachian, she was employed in the Department of Art as professor of art and art education, with major studio efforts in fiber construction. Force has participated in art exhibits since 1950, with works purchased for permanent museum collections in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Greece. She has had European exhibits in Paris, Florence, Rome, and Athens. Since 1965, Dr. Force has traveled to Europe thirteen times, teaching and leading art study groups totaling over two thousand students. From 1969 to 1971, she served as chair of the Appalachian committee to develop European study programs. As a teacher, Dr. Force believed it was vital to respect all students, to take joy in their learning, to be patient as they develop at their own pace, to recognize potential beyond their own realization, to challenge them toward deeper and faster growth, to value their learning opportunities more than comfort and ease of classroom and course management, to keep flexibility a basis for goal-seeking, to be a learner with and from the students, to care about their well-being, to retain that caring after the teacher-student role is past, and to always hold the sure knowledge that each of us is equally loved by God. While at Appalachian, Dr. Force served on the following committees: General College Council, 1969-80; Educational Council, 1970-71; Chancellor Search Committee, 1978; Long-Range Planning Committee, 1970-75; Graduate Program Committee, 1970-84; Graduate Program, chair, 1970-82; Field-Based Graduate Program, chair, 1972-86; and Art Education Committee, 1969-retirement (chair, 1969-80 and 1983-86). She also participated in the TTT program, 1971-72. Dr. Force also served on the boards of the following organizations: National Association of Educators of Art, Southeast Division, chair, 1970-71 (NAEA); North Carolina Association of Educators of Art, chair, research, 1972-73; and NAEA research director, Southeast Region, higher education, 1979-81. Dr. Force's greatest pleasure in teaching came from participating in national efforts to change art education from media orientation to perceptual, conceptual, and experiential understandings. In addition, she enjoyed initiating and developing the Department of Art's graduate program and the accompanying "Grad-camp Program." This program enabled in-service teachers to earn their masters' degrees. Along with Dr. Jim Stines and Dr. Don Frantz, Force developed Watauga College. Dr. Force has received many rewards: International Who's Who Women in Art, London, 1980; Danforth Associate, 1977; Academic Excellence Fellowship, $7,000, Madison Junior College, Madison, Florida, 1966-67; Silver Award, painting, Missouri State Fair, 1952; and Who's Who in American Schools and Colleges, 1952. Force's publications include the following: • "An Experimental Study to Examine the Response of Sixth-Grade Students to Programmed Instruction in Art Designed to Correspond to Selected Ability Trait Variables." Dissertation, Florida State University, 1968. • Member, committee of nine. Purposes, Principles, and Standards for School Art Programs. National Art Education Association, Reston, Virginia, 1981. • Member, committee of eight. Standards for Art Teacher Preparation Programs. National Education Association, Reston, Virginia, 1980. • Alternatives in Art Education, Center for Instructional Development, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, 1979. • Bases For Decision Making in Art Education, Center for Instructional Development, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, 1979. • Force, Lorraine and Donald Frantz. Poems and Fibers, Appalachian State University, 1974. • Studies in Art Education, a research study, expansion of the dissertation, H.E.W. research grant, National Art Education Association, 1970. Dr. Force conducted several research efforts, including studies of different learning abilities of children and their responses to related methods of teaching, development of inservice art programs, perceptual development in elementary schools, and art education and verbalization. Dr. Force stated that "retirement brings with it the wonderful opportunity to have time to produce art!" Sources: Personal correspondence with Lorraine Force. -Dr. Richard D. Howe
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