Valine Hobbs Elementary Education Endowed Scholarship

The Valine Hobbs Elementary Education Scholarship was established by Jack S. Staggs in memory of Valine Hobbs a faculty member at Sam Houston State Teachers College. Valine Hobbs graduated from Cooper High School and continued her education at East Texas State Teachers College. After obtaining a teaching certificate, she taught during the public school year and attended college during the summer months until she received her bachelor’s degree. She taught several years in elementary schools of Texas and attended George Peabody College for Teachers during the summer months while completing the master’s degree. She became an author of poetry and stories for children, and her writings had wide publication in basal readers, in anthologies of children’s literature, children’s magazines and books of poetry. At Sam Houston State University all elementary majors took her course in Children’s Literature, which they all called “Kittie Lit” since she was a lover of cats. In addition to exposing students to literature, she taught them reading, English, and handwriting as well as child psychology and professional ethics.

Dr. Staggs earned his bachelor’s degree from the State College of Arkansas, his master’s from George Peabody College for Teachers, and his doctorate/ram the University of Houston. He came to Sam Houston State in 1960 and served 13 years as director of the Department of Education, increasing faculty numbers from 11 to 40, increasing programs and establishing and maintaining important standards which have led to the establishment of SHSU’s second doctorate, in education administration, in 1997. Dr. Staggs served on many university councils and committees, as president of the university chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and he worked on behalf of the First United Methodist Church. It was in the military, working with enlisted men who were high school dropouts, when Staggs decided to become a teacher. This fascination with educating led him to get his teaching certificate at Central Arkansas University. He taught math for a few years while working on his master’s degree. In 1949 he completed his doctorate at the University of Houston in educational leadership and counseling. In October 1959, while giving a speech for the Texas Personnel and Guidance Association Meeting in San Antonio, he met Elliott T Bowers, the student union director at SHSU at the time. After the speech, Bowers approached Staggs, asking him to come to Sam Houston, and though he initially declined, he was eventually persuaded to join the SHSU faculty. During his 34 years at SHSU, Staggs served as director of the education department, later combining developmental psychology with the department and eventually developing the program from two courses into its own separate department. With his efforts and contributions, Dr. Staggs has helped create the Valine Hobbs Elementary Education Scholarship, and the Mozelle Powell Spanish Endowed Scholarship. When the Educational Leadership and Counseling doctoral program began, he established the Jack Staggs Educational Leadership and Counseling Dissertation Award. Since then, he has amended that award to be given to students whose dissertation is in Educational Leadership and also established the Jack Staggs Counseling Dissertation Award. Dr. Staggs funded state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment for the counseling doctoral program. The clinic was named Jack Staggs Counseling Clinic.