Jessie Gray (educator)

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Jessie Gray
A white woman with dark hair, wearing glasses and a string of beads over a dark top with a scooped neckline.
Jessie Gray, from a 1925 publication
BornJune 2, 1876
London, U.K.
DiedMay 29, 1948 (aged 71)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationEducator
This article is about the American teacher born in 1876; for the Canadian surgeon born in 1910, see Jessie Gray; for the British activist born in 1854, see Jesse Clement Gray; for the American politician born in 1923, see Jesse Gray; for the American professor born in 1913, see Jesse Glenn Gray.

Jessie Gray (June 2, 1876 – May 29, 1948) was a British-born American educator. She was elected president of the National Education Association in 1933, and in 1925 became the first woman president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

Early life and education

Gray was born in London,[1] one of the eight children of Alfred Gray and Sarah Jane Percy Gray.[2] Her parents were from Dorset. She moved to the United States as a child in 1881. She graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, and the Philadelphia Normal School.[3]

Career

From 1896 to 1914, Gray was a primary school teacher in Philadelphia. From 1914 to 1942, she was a training teacher at the Thaddeus Stevens School of Practice, a normal school in Philadelphia. She was president of the Philadelphia Teachers Association.[4] In 1925, she became the first woman elected president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA).[5][6] As PSEA head, she raised awareness of the plight of aged and retired teachers without adequate pensions, asking a 1929 audience, "Can you hear 400 teachers ranging from 72 to 90, calling with feeble voices and tear-dimmed hearts to you for help?"[7]

In 1933, Gray was elected president of the National Education Association (NEA),[8][9] the first Philadelphian and the second classroom teacher to hold that executive position.[10] Gray toured the United States as a speaker during her term as NEA president,[1][11] and promoted school district mergers as a budget help during the Great Depression.[12] She was succeeded by Henry Lester Smith in 1934.[13]

Gray was a delegate to the World Federation of Education Associations meeting in Edinburgh in 1925.[14]

Publications

Gray wrote for the Pennsylvania School Journal during her term as president of the PSEA, and for other publications when she was president of the NEA.

  • "Watch Our Organization" (1925)[15]
  • "How Can the Teacher Mold Character?" (1925)[16]
  • "A Professional Challenge" (1925)[17]
  • "On To Scranton" (1925)[18]
  • "Greetings from the N.E.A." (1933)[19]

Personal life

Gray died after a surgery to amputate her gangrenous right leg in 1948, at the age of 72, at a hospital in Philadelphia.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b "They'll Be Here Too, for Teachers Convention". The Austin American. 1933-11-30. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Birth date and parents' names from the Pennsylvania death certificate of Jessie Gray, died 29 May 1948 in Philadelphia; via Ancestry.
  3. ^ "Education in Action". The Journal of Education. 101 (4 (2514)): 115. 1925. ISSN 0022-0574. JSTOR 42833399 – via JStor.
  4. ^ a b "Jessie Gray Dead; Educator 46 Years; Former President of NEA, 72, First Woman Named Head of Pennsylvania Association". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-01-04.
  5. ^ "Woman Heads State Teachers". Intelligencer Journal. 1924-12-30. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Phila. Normal Woman Heads State Teachers; Miss Jessie Gray, Elected at Erie, First of Sex to Hold Post". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1924-12-31. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-01-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "400 Aged Teachers Seen Living in Need". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1929-02-17. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-01-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Educators Told Needs of System". Evening star. 1934-07-01. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Will Speak at P.-T. Meeting". The Evening News. 1935-05-02. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-01-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "New N. E. A. Leader Outlines Program; Miss Jessie Gray to Battle 'False Economy' in Schools". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1933-07-11. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "National Teachers' President in City". Spokane Chronicle. 1934-04-05. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "School Merger Urged Here by Educator". Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph. 1934-01-17. p. 19. Retrieved 2024-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Dr. Henry L. Smith N.E.A. President; Dean of Indian U. School of Education Succeeds Miss Jessie Gray". Evening Star. 1934-07-06. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-01-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Edinburgh Convention" Pennsylvania School Journal (September 1925): 24.
  15. ^ Gray, Jessie. "Watch Our Organization" Pennsylvania School Journal 74(1)(September 1925): 23-24.
  16. ^ Gray, Jessie. "How Can the Teacher Mold Character?" Pennsylvania School Journal 74(2)(October 1925): 102-103.
  17. ^ Gray, Jessie (October 1925). "A Professional Challenge". Pennsylvania School Journal. 74 (2): 113.
  18. ^ Gray, Jessie (December 1925). "On To Scranton". Pennsylvania School Journal. 74 (4): 231.
  19. ^ Gray, Jessie (October 1933). "Greetings from the N.E.A." The School Press Review. 9 (3): 2 – via Internet Archive.
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