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M. W. PEARL, A. B., A. M.
Vol. 3, p. 1097, 1098

Among the highly educated and practical teachers of Oklahoma should
be numbered the mathematics teacher of the Oklahoma City High School,
M. W. PEARL, a man whose tenacity of purpose and well directed energy
brought him through vicissitudes of financial embarrassment in his
early years and crowned him with two college degrees. He is a scholar
as well as teacher and has done much original research in the field
of psychology.

Born at Dixon, Illinois, June 22, 1875, he is a son of James M. and
Mary E. Pearl. His father in early life was a carpenter, but later
became a farmer. The paternal ancestry has participated in all wars
in which the United States has been engaged back to the revolution,
and Mr. Pearl himself is a veteran of the Spanish-American conflict.
His mother, who was born at Portland, Maine, and graduated from the
Dixon Normal at Dixon, Illinois, was a woman of remarkable intellect,
and after graduating from a medical college in San Francisco,
California, was for twenty years a practicing physician in that city.
Mr. Pearl has one brother, Byron W. Pearl, now engaged in farming
near Muskogee, Oklahoma.

His high school education was obtained in the public schools of San
Francisco. In 1893 he graduated from high school, and a number of
years later won the degree Bachelor of Arts from the Iowa State
Teachers' College. His degree, Master of Arts, was awarded by the
University of Oklahoma in 1913. His professional career began in
1894, and for three years he was assistant to the principal of the
Lincoln High School in San Francisco. In his high school graduating
class he stood eighth and was among those permitted under the law to
teach in the public schools with a high school diploma as a
substitute for a teacher's certificate. On being given a choice of
positions as teacher, he chose mathematics, a subject in which he has
extensively specialized. Later for three years he was superintendent
of schools at McCallsburg, Iowa, and for one year superintendent of
schools at Gilbert, Iowa. After removing to Oklahoma, he was for
several years a resident in Garfield County, and while there was
defeated by only a narrow margin as candidate for county
superintendent of schools. In 1913 he was elected superintendent of
schools at Walter, Oklahoma, and the following year was re-elected,
but was compelled to secure the abrogation of his contract on account
of the ill health of his wife, which made it necessary for both of
them to seek the climate of Colorado. Returning to Oklahoma in 1914
Mr. Pearl was chosen assistant superintendent of the Harrah public
schools. While teaching in Iowa he served several times as president
of the Teachers' Association and has always taken an active interest
in educational association work. While superintendent of schools at
McCallsburg, he served a term as mayor, and in that time conducted
and won a notable campaign against local vice and corruption. It was
from Iowa that Mr. Pearl went into the army during the Spanish-
American war. He enlisted April 25, 1898, and was with the Seventh
Army Corps in Cuba until mustered out May 13, 1899. He served under
Gen. Fitzhugh LEE, and in the same corps were Col. William J. BRYAN
and Col. Theodore ROOSEVELT.

At Pontiac, Illinois, September 3, 1903, Mr. Pearl married Miss
Musetta M. MARKLAND. Mrs. Pearl is a finished musician, being a
graduate of four well known conservatories, and also has the
distinction of being the first woman to finish the course of the law
department of the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 1915. Prior
to her graduation she had been admitted to the Oklahoma bar, and in
1915 took up regular practice in Oklahoma City, where she still is
practicing. Mrs. Pearl is a graduate of the State Normal School at
Bloomington, Illinois, and for ten years prior to her marriage was a
successful public school teacher. She belongs to a prominent family,
and one of her relatives was governor of Ohio.

Mr. Pearl is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and has
affiliations with the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges. He belongs to
the Oklahoma County Teachers' Association and the Oklahoma
Educational Association. As a student of psychology he has pursued
his investigations for a number of years and eventually expects to
obtain a higher degree with a thesis on that subject. This thesis he
designs as the basis of a text book which he hopes to publish. Mr.
And Mrs. Pearl reside at 2408 South Harvey Street, in Oklahoma City.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Dorothy Marie Tenaza, November 24, 1998.