Two Industrial Arts Teachers to RetireThe Ithaca Journal, Jun 24 1961, P. 3, Cols. 2-3, with photos "Two teachers in the Industrial Arts Department of Ithaca High School, with a combined total of 79 years in Ithaca Public Schools, are retiring this month.
They are
Clarence R. Dixon and
Elmer J. Woodams. Both are natives of Rochester, and both attended West High School in Rochester.
They were outstanding athletes as teenagers.
Dixon, director of vocational education, has served in the school system for 38 years. He has been director of vocational education and industrial arts since 1930.
Dixon has taught mechanical drafting, driver education and training and trade extension courses at Ithaca High.
He served as chairman of the Athletic Council since 1928. He was supervisor of student activities in 1929 and 1930. He was Business Manager of Athleties in 1933 and 1934, and Director of Athletics from 1942 through 1947.
Former Superintendent of Schools Claude L. Kulp, now Coordinator of Education Services at Cornell, says this tribute to Dixon: 'Although he is retiring, (Dixon) Dick is now at the apex of his career. He has recently accomplished life-long goals, namely the building of one of the finest industrial arts programs to be found anywhere, housed in one of the best physical plants in the nation, staffed by an outstanding group of instructors.'
He attended Ohio Northern University in 1912-13, and received a B.S. degree from the University of Rochester in 1930, and a M.S. degree from Cornell University in 1941. He also attended Buffalo State Teachers College.
Dixon was a draftsman in a Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. during World War I.
He started both the Ithaca Schoolmaster Club and the Industrial Education Teachers Club, southern zone.
He and his wife, Reta, live at 209 E. Upland Rd. They have a son, Robert, and four grandchildren.
Woodams has taught wood-working, metalworking, and mechanical drawing in Ithaca schools for 4l years.
He attended Rochester Institute, and also did work at the University of Rochester and Cornell University.
Woodams taught in the Frank Gannett Evening School for Boys, or the Boys Evening Home, primarily for newsboys, in Rochester.
He worked his way through school as a railroad motorman outside of Rochester. He served in the Army in World War I.
Before coming to Ithaca, Woodams taught briefly in East Orange, N.J., Utica, Rochester Institute, and Savannah, Ga.
Kulp pointed out an anecdote concering Wodams[sic] at a dinner earlier this week honoring both Woodams and Dixon, namely that Woodams once paddled a canoe around Lake Ontario, a voyage of several hundred miles.
Kulp's tribute: 'Elmer is a professional in every aspect of the meaning of the word. He devoted all of his occupational life to teaching....
He has been a loyal and altruistic teacher. He has contributed his best efforts to the improvement of the program ... and to the development of high-level skills.'
He lives on Trumansburg RD 3. and has two sons, William and Edward, and a daughter, Elizabeth, and five grandchildren."