Los
Angeles County
Biographies
CAROLYN AIRY
That
the future of the United States depends on what we are teaching our children in
American schools has been the guiding principle of Carolyn Airy’s
career as an educator. Miss Airy, who
has served as the first principal of Martha Baldwin Elementary School in
Alhambra since its completion in 1950, worked with the architects in its
planning and building; there are now thirty-two teachers on the faculty.
In
1927 Miss Airy came to California on a visit and that fall she began teaching
at Grand Avenue School in Buena Park, where she remained for four years. From 1933 to 1937 she taught physical
education and English at Rockport, Missouri, returning to Alhambra, California,
in 1937 where she taught at Fremont Elementary School for four years. After serving as a sergeant with the United
States Women’s Army Corps for twenty-one months during wartime as a
cryptologist for the Signal Corps in Washington, D. C., Miss Airy returned to
teach at Ramona Elementary School in Alhambra in 1944.
The
daughter of D. W. and Mary (Stafford) Airy, Miss Airy was born in Watson,
Missouri, on December 5, 1904. Her
father who was born in Maryville, Missouri, was a banker, and was mayor of
Watson and president of the school board there.
Her mother, who was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, was president of the
school board. Miss Airy’s
great-grandfather, T. L. Wilson, was one of the early pioneers of the Missouri-Texas-Kansas
Railroad. Her paternal grandfather, who
came from Ireland, settled in Missouri right after the Civil War.
Miss
Airy was educated at an elementary school in Watson, a high school in Lincoln,
Nebraska, and the University of Nebraska, where she received her Bachelor of
Arts degree in 1925. She did
post-graduate work at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1931 – 1932, and
took extension courses at the University of Southern California, the University
of California at Los Angeles, and Hunter College in New York. She received her Master of Arts degree at the
University of Southern California in 1950.
A
member and past president in 1948 – 1949 of the Alhambra Teachers’ Association,
Miss Airy is also a member of the California Teachers’ Association and of the
National Education Association. She is
also a member of the California Association of Elementary School Principals and
the Department of Elementary School Principals, as well as the Parent-Teachers’
Association of Martha Baldwin School.
Miss Airy belonged to the Campfire Council of Alhambra for several
years; she is a patron of the Alhambra Friends of the Library, and in 1960, was
a member of the United Fund board of directors.
She is also a member of P.E.O., JY Chapter, and is a member of Delta Delta Delta, as well as Theta
Sigma Phi, an honorary journalistic sorority.
A
coin collector, Miss Airy is also a member of the South Pasadena branch of the
Great Books Club, and is very fond of cooking.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Page 745, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES