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T. W. ROBISON
Vol. 3, p. 1061-1062

The best evidence of the application of modern methods in the
profession of teaching in the conduct of the public schools of Ada is
found in the fact that for seven successive years Superintendent
Robison has been at the head of these schools, and the best evidence
of the practicability and efficiency of these methods is the
remarkable growth of the schools during the same period. A quiet,
industrious, methodical school man is Superintendent Robison, and he
commands the confidence and brings out the best qualities from the
thirty-eight teachers under his supervision. The success he has made
at Ada is unusual in view of the presence of the East Central State
Normal School in that city. There have been cases in Oklahoma where
the high school was abandoned because of high school work being
offered in state schools. In Ada, however, the high school has grown
in popularity and efficiency in the very shadow of the normal, and at
the same time there is no friction between the two institutions. The
attendance record in the public schools showed 1,425 in 1915, where
the scholastic enrollment was 1,870. The school being conducted at
the normal which draws students from the high school grades.

When Mr. Robison first taught in Ada, in 1907-08, as ward principal,
the total enrollment was seven hundred and the number of teachers was
seventeen. Naturally the subsequent increase can be accounted for
largely by the growth of the town, but the efficient administration
of Mr. Robison, who was elected superintendent in 1908, must also be
accounted a very significant factor. When he began his work in Ada
the school equipment comprised a small brick building and a few frame
buildings. Now there are four modern brick schoolhouses, including
one of the handsomest and best equipped high schools of the state.
When the state normal was established at Ada the high school building
was leased to the state pending the erection of a state building, and
all high school work for the time was done in the normal. After the
buildings of the state had been completed Superintendent Robison
began to re-establish the high school, one grade each year. In 1915
the enrollment in the high school was 115 and since the curriculum
has been fully re-established only twelve students have left before
completing the course in order to enter the normal. Four live
patrons' organizations are maintained and special emphasis is given
to the social center of the school. Athletics is also important, the
school maintaining football, baseball and basketball teams, and also
track teams. Superintendent Robison was the promoter and is now
president of "The First High School Athletic League," an organization
that embraces high schools in Ada, Colgate, Francis, Atoka,
Holdenville, Roff, Stonewall, Sulphur and Wewoka. The Ada school in
1914 won seven of nine games of football played and was third in the
basketball record. Two literary societies are maintained and their
debaters in 1914-15 won the championship of Southeast Oklahoma, under
direction of the extension division of the University of Oklahoma.
New equipment to the value of a thousand dollars a year is being
added to the schools and a library of four hundred volumes has been
installed. The standard of qualifications for the teaching force has
been gradually raised until in 1915 three-fourths of the teacher were
normal school graduates and the others held first-grade certificates.
The following year every teacher in the high school proper had the
equivalent of a Bachelor's Degree.

Superintendent Robison was born at Big Flat, Arkansas, May 16, 1883,
and is a son of Finis A. and Nancy J. (BROWN) Robison. In his lineage
are found many successful farmers of Tennessee and Arkansas. Mr.
Robison attended the grade schools in Arkansas and graduated from
high school at Mountain View in that state. Education has really been
his life work. For five years after leaving high school he was a
teacher in Arkansas and was principal at Franklin and Guion. He came
to Ada in 1907 and was elected ward principal. During his residence
in the state he has graduated from the East Central normal and has
done considerable extension work with the University of Oklahoma. As
already mentioned he was elected superintendent of the Ada public
school system in 1908.

At Batesville, Arkansas, in 1904 he married Miss Samantha Eva
MCCOOK. Their two children are Lee Jennings, aged nine, and Irene,
aged seven. Superintendent Robison has a brother Ray's H. Robison,
who is principal of the public schools in Mill Creek, Oklahoma

Superintendent Robison is a man of broad interests and sympathy. He
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and for the past
four years has been superintendent of its Sunday school. He is
affiliated with the Masonic and the Woodmen of the World lodges,
belongs to the Ada Commercial Club, to the Pontotoc County and
Oklahoma State Teachers Association and a consistent advocate of
public uplift and public improvement, and one of Ada's most
progressive and best liked citizens.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Marti Graham, November 14, 1998.