Dr. Edna Varner
For longtime educator and community volunteer Dr. Edna Varner, receiving the prestigious Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga’s Distinguished Service Award apparently does not make her want to simply rest on her laurels and past contributions.
Instead, looking at the long list of past recipients has almost served as a visual pep talk to her to keep serving.
“These are really distinguished people, and I am honored to be in their company,” she said of receiving the award, which will be presented Feb. 1 at noon at the Westin Hotel downtown. “It makes me want to do more.”
As Dr. Varner recently chatted over the phone while on her way to some service-related work out of town, she did say she was humbled to receive this award that has long been considered the biggest local recognition for longtime community service and voluntarism.
“It is absolutely an honor,” she said. “I am so humbled by it because there are so many people in Chattanooga who do so much service. I was floored when they told me I was the recipient.”
Continuing to do altruistic-related work into her 70s both in her current job with the Public Education Foundation and in several voluntary positions has simply been a way of life for Dr. Varner. And it started with lessons taught to her as a child.
A member of a large family, she saw her father, the Rev. Andrew Bullard, work long hours helping with the needs of his congregation and community as pastor of New Enon Baptist Church in Chattanooga. Her mother, Peggie Bullard, was a school patrol officer for the Chattanooga Police Department. She along with colleague Jeanette Wilkerson also helped countless underprivileged children have a better Christmas by heading up the Forgotten Child Fund.
“I grew up in a home with people who believed in public service and assumed public service is what you do,” she said.
She attended the old Frank Trotter Elementary – named for a prominent black man – at Kirkland Avenue in South Chattanooga before being in the first class at Orchard Knob Junior High after it was built in the popular mid-century architectural style of the time.
She thought she would eventually go on to Howard High, which was the only black city high school in the early 1960s when desegregation was just starting in the lower grades. But Riverside High had opened in the old Chattanooga High School building on Third Street, and she was among the early wave of students to attend there before graduating in 1967.
It was at a time when a budding rivalry between Howard and Riverside was starting after all young black Chattanoogans in the city limits had earlier felt a connection to Howard and assumed they would go to school there. In fact, Riverside was informally called Howard East at first, she said.
The growing intensity in the rivalry was highlighted with the great basketball teams Riverside had under Dorsey Sims.
But Dr. Varner was perhaps most enthused about simply being a student, and her own experiences planted a seed that started her on an education career.
“When I was a student, I had such great teachers,” she said. “I enjoyed school. But somewhere I realized every student wasn’t enjoying school and that made me even more convinced to become a teacher.
“I wanted every student to love school as much as I did and to be as successful as I was,” she added, pointing out that she particularly enjoyed the reading and writing classes.
She would end up mirroring her student days not only in her enthusiasm, but also where she taught.
But first she had to train to be a teacher. Just a few years after a black student from Chattanooga with her career goals could primarily attend only a historic black college in another city or perhaps a Northern school, she enrolled at the University of Chattanooga.
However, she still had to work hard to get her degree, and not just academically.
“I was the oldest of eight children and my parents couldn’t afford to send me off to college,” she said. “So, I worked 40 hours a week at Moore & King Pharmacy (near Erlanger and UC).”
This figuratively ended up being the perfect prescription for success in college, however. She would take college classes in the morning and then work from 1 to 8 p.m. typing labels on the prescriptions in the pre-computer days.
The work would slow down about 6 p.m. each day, so owner Joe King would let her do homework and study during the slow time while still taking care of the infrequent early evening customer. It was an act she still appreciates to this day.
“He and I remained friends until he moved to Florida” in recent years, she said.
Mr. King, who had several pharmacy locations, including one that was considered the first drive-through pharmacy in the South, died just this past November at the age of 104.
Dr. Varner’s first teaching job was in 1971 at the old Lookout Junior High on West 40th Street across from Forest Hills Cemetery. There she taught junior high English before moving on the next year to Northside Junior High, which years later became Chattanooga Middle School and is now part of the Normal Park Magnet School for upper grades.
Another stop – but a familiar one – came when her alma mater of Riverside High was closed, and the historic building was renovated for the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. It opened in 1986 as the first public magnet school in Chattanooga, and she was a member of the founding faculty.
“There was lots of nostalgia there,” she said. “I was a teacher and assistant principal.”
In 1997, this woman whose other stints included teaching at Dalewood Junior High and being principal of Chattanooga Phoenix Middle School saw a very significant milestone in her career when she was named as principal of Howard High School.
“It was a big job,” she recalled of taking the reins the same year the Chattanooga City Schools and Hamilton County Schools merged. “But it was a big honor. I got to choose all the faculty, but there was such a great faculty already there that I chose a few new people and kept most of the other people.”
She said she takes pride in that many of the faculty there at the time have gone on to leadership positions in the Hamilton County Schools as well.
After four years at Howard, she took a position as director of leadership development with Cornerstone Literacy, an initiative which helped improve literacy and critical thinking skills on a national scale.
“I had a lot of frequent flier miles,” she said with a laugh, adding that she was recruited by the then-director for the position.
But her heart was always still in Chattanooga, and in recent years she has begun working with the Public Education Foundation helping recruit and train teachers for Hamilton County Schools.
“Instead of teachers going to colleges and passing tests, they work in the classroom of effective teachers for the whole year,” she said, adding that the emphasis is on training teachers to work and remain in schools that have trouble retaining teachers.
While doing education-related work can be one of the more mentally exhausting jobs, despite the many emotional rewards, Dr. Varner has still found time to be involved in plenty of service work. It is service that no doubt caught the eyes of the Kiwanis Club.
This woman who in recent years completed her educational doctoral work also serves on about a dozen boards, including the Siskin Children’s Institute and the Chattanooga State Foundation. She has also been active with Delta Sigma Theta sorority and is a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga Downtown, where public service is also encouraged.
“People who are in organizations like Kiwanis or Rotary, it is because they believe public service is important,” she said.
She will no doubt be preaching to the choir next Tuesday when she receives the Distinguished Service Award at what organizers say is a sold-out event.
But this busy woman -- who still keeps a full schedule and is seemingly always on the move -- is thankful most of all for teaching children to stop for a spell and learn the pleasures and important educational value of the written word.
“I loved reading and writing, and I just wanted children to learn reading and writing,” she said. “That just seemed like the best job in the world.”
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According to Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga member Pete Palmer, the club normally meets every Tuesday at noon at the Mountain City Club.
He said the club’s service work in addition to the annual award includes the Great Kiwanis Duck Race. In recent years, it has raised money for a cross country trail at Howard Academy, and playgrounds and recreation space at Clifton Hills and East Lake elementaries, and Orange Grove Center, among other places.
The club also sponsors high school key clubs and a Circle K club at UTC.
Those wanting to find more information about the club or desire to attend a meeting canemail kiwanischatt@comcast.net or call (423) 267-6568.
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To see the story announcing Dr. Varner as this year’s recipient, read here.
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/1/19/441844/Kiwanis-Club-Of-Chattanooga-Honors-Dr..aspx
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Past winners of the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga’s Distinguished Service Award Have Been:
1922 -- C. E. James and Jonathan W. Bachman; 1923 -- Z. W. Wheland; 1925 -- George H. Patten; 1927 -- Adolph S. Ochs; 1928 -- Robert Hooke; 1929 -- George Fort Milton; 1930 -- William E. Brock; 1931 -- John Staigmaier; 1932 -- T. C. Thompson; 1933 -- Thomas S. McCallie; 1936 -- Alex Guerry; 1937 -- John E. Lovell; 1938 -- Clara Carpenter and Annetta Trimble; 1940 -- Robert E. Biggers; 1941 -- Walter C. Johnson; 1942 -- Anne F. McClure; 1943 -- Spencer J. McCallie; 1944 -- E. Y. Chapin, Sr.; 1945 -- John B. Steele; 1946 -- James L. Fowler; 1947 -- Milton B. Ochs; 1948 -- J. Park McCallie; 1949 -- Morrow Chamberlain; 1950 -- Harry Miller.
1951 -- Dillard H. Griswold; 1952 -- Roy McDonald; 1953 -- David Lockmiller; 1954 -- Robert Sparks Walker; 1955 -- John S. Fletcher; 1956 -- Harry C. Carbaugh; 1957 -- Clay Evans Johnson; 1958 -- States R. G. Finley; 1959 -- A. Mose Siskin and Garrison Siskin; 1960 -- Louis J. Williams; 1962 -- DeSales Harrison; 1963 -- Raymond B. Witt, Jr.; 1964 -- Louise G. Currey; 1965 -- William E. Brock, Jr.; 1966 -- Joseph Johnson, Jr.; 1967 -- Floyd C. Delaney; 1968 -- Cartter Patten; 1969 -- William O. Hubbuch; 1970 -- Robert L. Maclellan; 1971 -- A. J. Koblentz; 1972 -- Gordon P. Street and Ruth L. Street; 1973 -- Joseph Davenport, Jr.; 1975 -- Virginia W. Power; 1976 -- Frank W. Wilson; 1977 -- Stanyarne Burrows, Jr.; 1978 -- David P. McCallie and Maddin L. McCallie; 1979 -- Mai Belle C. Hurley; 1980 – Mildred Montague.
1981 -- Scott L. Probasco, Jr.; 1982 -- William G. Raoul; 1983 -- W. Henry Trotter; 1984 -- Spencer McCallie, Jr.; 1985 -- Hugh O. Maclellan, Sr.; 1986 -- Florence B. Witt; 1987 -- Joseph F. Decosimo; 1988 -- James D. Kennedy, Sr.; 1989 -- Ruth S. Holmberg; 1990 -- Carey Hanlin; 1991 -- John T. Lupton; 1992 -- Robert Kirk Walker; 1993 -- John Carroll Stophel; 1994 -- Mary Holliday and Pope Holliday; 1995 -- Lee S. Anderson; 1996 -- Jack H. McEwen; 1997 -- John P. Guerry; 1998 -- Frank McDonald; 1999 -- Claude C. Bond; 2000 -- Gordon L. Smith, Jr.; 2001 -- Ray L. Nation; 2002 -- Vernon W. Cox; 2003 -- Olan Mills and Norma Mills; 2004 -- Dr. Clifford Hendrix, Jr.; 2005 -- Jac Chambliss; 2006 -- Jerry V. Adams; 2007 -- Ralph W. Mohney, Sr. and Nell Mohney; 2008 -- Grady P. Williams; 2009 -- H. Grant Law, Jr.; 2010 -- Richardia (Rickie) Pierce; 2011 -- Tom Edd Wilson; 2012 -- Charles (Chuck) Zeiser; 2013 -- T. Maxfield (Max) Bahner; 2014 -- Dr. Fred Obear and Ruth Obear; 2015 -- John P. Franklin, Sr.; 2016 -- Alexander (Zan) Guerry, III; 2017 -- Harry (Hap) Harwell, Jr.; 2018 -- James (Jim) and Elaine Hill; 2019 -- Dr. Clifton (Clif) Cleaveland; and 2021 – Dr. Edna Varner
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net