From The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C.,
Sept. 5, 1919
R.B. Creecy Jr. . . .
His 43rd Year of Teaching. . . And Yet, He Is Not Old Because He
Lives With Youth
On Monday, September 1st, Prof. R.B. Creecy Jr.
of this city, veteran schoolmaster whose inspirational teaching has prepared
many hundreds of boys for successful careers in many walks of life, began his
43rd consecutive year as a teacher. Despite his many arduous years in
the schoolroom, Prof. Creecy is today in spirit and feeling a boy among boys,
nor does he ever expect to “grow up,” as he expresses it. He declares that his
greatest pleasure is in the companionship of boys and young men, whose mental
attitude is fresh and unspoiled, and this fact in part explains Prof. Creecy’s
perennial youthfulness.
Since the Civil Service was instituted in President
Cleveland’s administration, Prof. Creecy has been preparing prospective
applicants for entrance examinations in this branch of government employ, and
of all whom he has coached for these examinations, not a single one has failed
to pass, which is a remarkable record. Prof. Creecy is so entirely modest and
unassuming that it is next to impossible to get him to talk about himself, and
the highest eulogy of his patient and thoroughly efficient work as a teacher
will be found in the achievements of “his boys” as he terms the ones whom he
has instructed.
Prof. Creecy will be 63 years old—or young next November. He
is a son of the late Col. R.B. Creecy, long a prominent figure in the political
and literary circles of North Carolina, whose “Grandfather’s Tales of North
Carolina” form an interesting and valuable contribution to the historical
literature of the State. Prof. Creeecy received his early educational training
from his father, and afterward spent five years at the Horner school at Oxford,
N.C., graduating with honor and, incidentally, teaching mathematics at the
school for a time, being called to this position when only 16 years of age, on
account of the illness of the regular professor. In the early 80s Prof. Creecy
served six years as superintendent of school in Pasquotank county, succeeding
the late J.P. Overman who was our first county superintendent. However, Prof.
Creecy’s life has been almost entirely devoted to the education of boys in is
private school, which has rightly come to be regarded as one of the finest in
the State in point of effective and inspirational instruction.
Speaking of the value of college training, Prof. Creecy
says, “College education is a fine thing, but many of the young men who leave
college with their diplomas do not know anything.” Pressed for an explanation
of this statement, he goes on: “When a young man graduates from college, he has
only laid the foundation for his real education, which can come from an
experience with the world and its ways. Whether or not the college-trained man
succeeds depends entirely upon himself, his adaptability and his power to apply
the things which have been taught him.” And, come to think of it, Prof. Creecy
is entirely right. The photo herewith is a Saunders’ snapshot.
Image provided by
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC
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