That’s how Curt Boggs, former Ironton High School principal and educator, remembers Kenneth McCauley, longtime Waterloo High School principal, first Symmes Valley High principal and Ironton administrator.

Wednesday, May 03, 2000

That’s how Curt Boggs, former Ironton High School principal and educator, remembers Kenneth McCauley, longtime Waterloo High School principal, first Symmes Valley High principal and Ironton administrator.

McCauley, who spent more than 50 years in public schools, died Monday. He was 85.

"He was a very talented man and a very intelligent man, and at the same time quite a modest person really," said Boggs, who worked under McCauley when he served as Ironton’s director of instructional services.

"In looking at this man, he was a shining example of what a person should be, not just as an educator."

Morally, professionally and in all parts of his life, McCauley served as an example to others, he said.

Special friend and fellow educator Wayne White remembers McCauley fondly.

"I’ve known him a good part of my life," White said. "He was the high school principal at Waterloo and I attended and graduated from Waterloo."

If not for McCauley, White might have ended up working in a factory so he could afford to buy a 1958 Chevrolet, he said.

"I didn’t get that Chevy," said White, who spent a nine years as teacher at Waterloo before becoming Dawson-Bryant superintendent and, eventually, executive director of Ohio Appalachian Center for Higher Education.

"But Kenneth McCauley was a major factor in my going to college," White said. "My senior year, he called me into his office and told me that Ohio University Southern Campus, the Ironton branch, was going to give 10 scholarships and he thought I could get one."

White protested, saying he didn’t have the best grades in the school or the county.

"He said, ‘We both know you could have worked a little more,’ and he handed me some books," White said. "Out of respect for him, I took the books, brushed up and got one of the scholarships."

McCauley was a good man, who never abused his disciplinary power, White said.

That caused not only fellow teachers and administrators to respect him, but also helped his students to never forget him, White said.

"He was an educator among educators," White said. "I’ve done my best to emulate his teaching style. An indicator of his ability in education is that he was in the education field for 37 years. Those years were in the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s and, I think, ended in 1971. Most of those years he was a high school principal at Waterloo and then Symmes Valley when that building opened. He never laid a hand on a kid. In an era when using the paddle was quite common, he never used it. That’s indicative of the respect students not only had for him but that he had for students."

County superintendent Harold Shafer walked through the halls of Symmes Valley as a student when McCauley served as principal there.

"When we were in high school, he was the only guy you ever saw who could look at you and make you crawl in a hole and he never used a paddle," Shafer said. "Everybody took a lesson or two from Kenneth McCauley when we were in high school."

And Shafer kept taking lessons, watching McCauley as role model for his own career in the public schools.

"We all had lots and lots of respect for that man and we will miss him."

McCauley grew up in the Waterloo area, graduating from Waterloo High in 1932.

He attended Rio Grande College and Wilmington College, then received his master’s degree in education from Marshall University.

McCauley dedicated himself to public education for most of his life, even after retirement when he became a consultant to the Ironton Board of Education.

During his career, he received several honors, including the "Fighting Tiger Award" – the most prestigious award given to an Ironton educator – but remained quietly modest, friends and family said.

McCauley, who once served as the Waterloo Wonders statistician, took part in the community, too.

The U.S. Army veteran was a former member and past president of the old Kiwanis Club of Ironton.

McCauley was a 50-year member of Waterloo Masonic Lodge. He also was a board member for the American Cancer Society, and also a member of the Waterloo Grange, Ironton Elks and the Shriners.

Funeral services for McCauley will be 1 p.m. Thursday at Phillips Funeral Home, with the Rev. Bill Flannery officiating. Burial will follow in Woodland Cemetery.

Visitation will be 6-9 p.m. today at the funeral home, with Masonic services at 7:30 p.m., by the Waterloo Masonic Lodge.