Page 25 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

Column April 8, 2007

GENERAL BOB’S FAVORITE CHS TEACHERS

Brigadier General Robert B. (Bob) Harkness, Jr. (CHS 1920) died
November 18, 1995, at age 94. He was one of our most successful CHS
graduates-class president, football captain, and lots m ore-so I asked him
one day who his most memorable teachers were. This was his answer.

*Bertha Terry. She was my fourth grade teacher. One day I talked after
she told me to be quiet and she gave me a switching. From her I learned
to obey proper authority on the first request.

*Lucy Simpson. She introduced our senior class to Solid Geometry, never
before offered at CHS. It was hard for us to learn but she made us learn
it, and finally we all got good at it. From her I learned not to quit
something just because it is difficult. If you just keep trying at anything
you will likely succeed.

*Cy Hollingsworth. He was my principal and a natural leader. We would
have done anything he asked us to. I learned about leadership from him.
Leadership ran in his family. His brother became an admiral in World War II.

*M attie Van Fleet. She was a fine teacher and never gave up on slow
learners. I also liked her brother, General James A. Van Fleet, and
enjoyed talking to him about the military and about football. He was UF’s
head football coach in 1923 and 1924.

*Ham Dowling. He was my football coach. He wanted us to have a
football team so bad that he coached us without pay and personally
raised funds from townspeople to buy all our uniforms and equipment.

I also asked Bob what was the key to the great success he had enjoyed in
the army. Bob gave a typically modest answer: “I guess I was kind of like
Forrest Gump. I just found out what they wanted me to do and I did it,
and that carried me a long way.”

Some of you who live on the Lake Jeffery Road see Bob’s name regularly.
“The Robert B. Harkness National Guard Armory” is named after him.

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