WHEN GRACE (DAVIS) ENGLAND ’55
began college, women’s career choices were
limited—teacher, nurse, secretary, homemaker.
Fortunately, becoming a teacher was exactly what
she had in mind.
England was among the first Lamar students to earn bachelor’s
degrees in elementary education. The lessons she learned at
Lamar built a strong foundation for a career that has carried her
from the elementary classroom to administrative offices to college
lecture halls and educational consulting work around the globe.
“Lamar was just so supportive of me,” England said. “Lamar
has offered some phenomenally innovative approaches to education,
to seeing that good teachers are out there in deaf education
and all areas of education. I think that message needs to be told.”
After graduating with high honors from Lamar, England
taught at a Port Neches elementary school for six years. When she
and her husband, Bill, who also attended Lamar, moved to Dallas,
England discovered an area of interest that has stayed with her. A
pilot program for children with neurological disorders needed a
substitute teacher, and England was asked if she had any experience
in the field. Thanks to Lamar, she did. As a Lamar student,
England had been invited by a chemistry professor to observe and
tutor his son, who had a neurological disability. That encounter first
sparked her interest in the burgeoning field of special education,
and her work as a substitute in Dallas solidified it. England went
on to earn her master’s degree at North Texas State University and
her doctorate at Texas Woman’s University, both in education. In
1975, she became director of special education in the Klein school
district, at the time the fastest-growing district in the country.
“We were working with a new federal law and, at the same
time, unprecedented growth in that district. Being a special
education administrator was very challenging, but
the remarkable staff that we had made it seem
possible,” England said. The lessons in adaptability
and resourcefulness she learned at Lamar also
helped. England recalls with fondness the time faculty
and classmates pulled together her senior year
to raise money to send her to serve as a recorder
for the International Association for Childhood
Education conference in Kansas City. The
fundraising luncheon was so successful that they
were running short of chicken salad near the end
of the event. A popular teacher from the speech
and drama department, Crystal Canon, solved the
problem by crumbling a box of Ritz crackers into
what was left of the salad, England recalled.
“She stretched that salad beyond its means,”
England laughed. The memory surfaced many
times during her years of administration when
funds ran short and work remained to be done. “I
would say, ‘We need some Ritz crackers.’ You have
to make due with what you have,” England said.
“At Lamar, I learned a lot of very practical, wise
strategies to use as a teacher and, later on, as an
administrator. There was more than just book
knowledge and theory in all my classes. I learned
to work collaboratively with others.”
The trip to Kansas City her senior year also paid off in another
way. When England stepped off the train at her destination, she
had a surprise reunion with her brother, Otho Davis ’57, who was
stationed as an Army medic at nearby Fort Leavenworth. After
completing his Army service, Davis finished his degree at Lamar
and became a respected athletic trainer. As executive director of the
National Athletic Trainers Association, Davis helped establish state
certification requirements for athletic trainers. He worked for Duke
University and the Baltimore Colts before spending 24 years with
the Philadelphia Eagles. England has established a scholarship in
her brother’s memory at Lamar.
For the past 16 years, England has worked to educate a new
generation of teachers by serving as a lecturer at University of St.
Thomas in Houston. She is currently an adjunct lecturer there and
is working as an educational consultant with the Spring Branch
school district. She also hopes to work with Lamar’s Department
of Deaf Education and Deaf Studies to expand opportunities for
the education of interveners to support students who are both deaf
and blind.
England enjoys travel, both for professional conferences and
personal enrichment. Visiting her adult children at times has meant
worldwide travel. Two of her sons are electrical engineers whose job
assignments have included locations in Australia, China, Mexico
and Algeria. Her third son is a master electrician. Her daughter, a
physical therapist who has taught the subject in Houston, Armenia
and Vietnam, is also an avid traveler. England is thankful that all
four children now live in the Houston area. She and Bill enjoy
spending time with them, their eight grandchildren and their two
great-grandchildren.
