The next leg of my trip, once again, hugged the east coast on Highway 1A...this time from Flagler Beach up to and through St. Augustine to the home of Ray King (pictured below) in Jacksonville. 


I was on schedule...until the beauty of St. Augustine Beach summoned me and The Cycle Of Education to a side road in front of a long-established house.  I stopped to take a photo of the historic lighthouse that graces the backyard of this relatively small, unassuming home. From the website:

A Spanish watchtower, built in the late 1500's was the predecessor of the present St. Augustine Lighthouse. St. Augustine is the site of the oldest aid to navigation in North America. The original watchtower became Florida's first lighthouse in 1824. However, by 1870, the tower was threatened by shoreline erosion and construction began on the current lighthouse. The new tower was completed in 1874. The old tower succumbed to the sea during a storm in 1880.

The only good angle I could get to photograph it was from the front of a small home tucked into a small neighborhood behind a small elementary school.  After parking the cycle and grabbing my camera, I heard a voice invite me into the backyard for an even better angle.  The voice came from behind a screened door and, with cane in hand, the owner of the voice and home---Halver A. Stedman---then took a few steps outside to put a face with the voice.  I thanked him and proceeded to the backyard for a few shots. 


After doing so, I almost headed straight for the motorcycle to get going to Ray's in Jacksonville (as I was already going to arrive later than planned), but I felt an obligation to thank the gentleman for allowing me into his backyard.  So I approached the screened door and could see him sitting there in a recliner holding a cigar and sipping what I later discovered was a glass of brandy.  Halver rocked himself up out of his recliner and came to the door for what turned out to be a most pleasant 20-or-so minute chat before he invited inside to continue our discussion. 

We had a great deal to discuss--come to discover--because he was an educator for 49 years before retiring in 2007.  In fact, he played a significant role in the public education system serving St. Augustine FL over the past half century.  He is a most interesting part of its history.

His career in education started after serving four years in the active military (and another fours years in a part time military role) during the 1950s.  Following his four years of active duty, he began preparing himself to be an educator.  In 1958, after also playing semi-pro baseball while preparing to teach, he was hired in his home state of Maine to teach five subjects AND serve as the high school principal!  Yes, his first year as an educator--1958--he was the principal as well as a teacher of multiple subjects!  I asked him how this came to be and he told me that the coach of his semi-pro baseball team just so happened to also be superintendent of the schools!  Often times who you know is at least as important as what you know.


Four years later, after his mom called the superintendent in the St. Augustine schools asking if they had any openings so she could coax Halver down to Florida, he was hired to teach Math in the district he would serve for the next 24 years of his career.  That was 1962 and it would be eight more years before he was principal again.  Leading up to his first principal position in Florida, Halver studied elementary education expecting to be named to an elementary school principal position.  Instead, in 1970 St. Augustine was integrating the races in their schools and he was asked to take charge of the high school under those tumultuous circumstances. 


He recounted how even parents who basically agreed with integration (or at least where not opposed to it) felt a tremendous amount of pressure and concern that they or their children would face repercussions as a consequence.  He also noted that it was difficult to prevent bullying of the black children due to the practice of large groups of white students surrounding them to, in essence, shield the bullies from intervention by teachers and administrators.  We have come a long way in America.

After serving the first decade of integration at that high school, Halver Stedman was named the first principal of the district's new "Nease High School."  I went by there and can say...that is one beautiful high school.  He served as principal there for the first five years of its existence and had just reached the point of it humming along when he learned that both of his assistant principals would be leaving that same year.  Just when he could have relaxed a bit from the huge responsibility of launching a large high school (as well as the prior ten shepherding in integration at the other), he now faced the prospect of yet another beginning---> building a new administrative team. 


Just at that time, the little elementary school his house sits behind had an opening for campus principal.  He could walk there in less than a minute.  They had, by his telling, an excellent faculty.  It was simply too enticing for a man who had just seen the district through integration of a high school and, then, the opening of a new flagship high school....with 17 years of service as a principal in the district and 28 years of total experience as an educator.  Then, after a year as principal of the elementary campus, Flagler College offered him an opportunity to teach on their campus.  He accepted and went on to serve there until 2007.


Halver Stedman was a dedicated, accomplished educator for a total of 49 years!  How respectable is that!


I was lucky to make his acquaintance.  It was hard to leave his delightful company!  He and his wife, a former school nurse for many years, even invited me to stay at their home in Maine this summer when I take Education Ride 365 up there!  I plan to do so!


Ray King was understanding when I arrived at his home in Jacksonville several hours later than I said I would.  He knows my mission on Education Ride 365 is, first and foremost, to discover ever more about education in America!  After my arrival, he and I went out for a late dinner, spoke about his fond memories of the quality schools he attended as a child (and now lives next to) in the heart of Jacksonville, before turning in for rest to prepare for a scenic ride the next day back to St. Augustine for lunch and to give me time to visit the sights.  Ray was a kind and interesting host!


St. Augustine is a most beautiful city!  My favorite city on this journey thus far!  If you've never been...think about visiting St. Augustine---> the oldest city in America!

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Riding Stats: Day 23---84.64 miles traveled, 2 hours and 7 minutes of moving time, 4 hours and 59 minutes of stopped time, 39.8 miles per hour moving average, 11.9 miles per hour overall average, and a max speed of 84.64 miles per hour.  Day 24---146.4 miles traveled, 4 hours and 10 minutes of moving time, 4 hours and 3 minutes of stopped time, 35.1 miles per hour moving average, 20.2 miles per hour overall average, and a max speed of 84.1 miles per hour.