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Father, daughter create SCC tradition
As Southwestern Community College observes its 40th anniversary Saturday, April 2, Johnny Childers and his daughter Jean Scott have a special reason to celebrate.
Scott will graduate in May with a degree in Early Childhood Education. Forty years ago her dad was a member of SCC’s first graduating class, joining 11 other masonry students who came to be known as the “12 pioneers.”
Those students, under the direction of Bill Dillard, a Jackson County commissioner and local construction company owner, laid the foundation and built the walls for what is now Founder’s Hall even before the state gave official approval for the new trade school. Dillard and his 12 students became known as “risk takers,” taking a risk that turned out to have huge rewards for thousands of people.
“I remember we were digging the footings, using a pick and shovel, for the first building on campus,” said Childers, who lives in Sylva.
“I told Jim Searcy – he was our instructor – that we could do it quicker if we used a garden plow so we got one and took the outside diggers off and that’s how we dug those footings. I remember working on it the day President Kennedy was shot – Nov. 22, 1963.
“I also remember us building the flower box at the high school sign, back when it was Sylva-Webster High School. We finished it up late that day, then went home and changed our clothes for the graduation banquet that night at the old Parkway Restaurant – May 3, 1964.”
Childers developed a fondness for masonry work and learned his trade well under Searcy’s guidance.
“In the fall of 1963 Mr. Searcy took three of us to the State Fair in Raleigh to compete in statewide competition,” said Childers, who tied for eighth and ninth place in the brick layers apprenticeship contest.
In 1966 Childers took a day job at Dayco in Waynesville but continued to build basements, foundations, chimneys and walls for people across Western North Carolina in the evenings and on weekends.
“The times I could, I went with him,” said his daughter.
“Yeah, one day I was laying block and looked up and there were these two little tennis shoes on top of the blocks I just laid,” he said.
“Since I was with him most of the time anyway, Dad put me to work. He gave me this little tool with a curved edge and in between the blocks I did jointing, smoothing out the mortar before it set up, said Scott, adding that she learned math by watching him count out the blocks for each row.
“Dad is so good at his trade. It would amaze me how precisely he could cut block with a hammer; he knew how to tap it just right,” Scott said.
“When Hazel Jean – that’s what I call her – graduated from high school in 1984, her mother told me, ‘You need to talk to her about going on to school.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not going to make her go. She needs to do what she wants to do.’”
Scott worked several jobs before finally finding her niche in childcare with the Macon Programs For Progress New Horizon Center.
“I found I really loved working with children so I decided to go ahead and get my early childhood education degree from SCC,” said Scott.
“I worked eight hours a day, five days a week, then took night classes,” said Scott, who attended on a T.E.A.C.H. scholarship, which is given specifically to students studying early childhood education.
“I had great support from SCC and from my family,” she said. “She started out changing diapers at the center and now she’s a lead teacher and has people under her changing diapers,” said her dad.
“Getting an education in early childhood not only is good training for my job but it’s helped me so much in raising my two children,” she said of Travis, 13, and Tyler, 8.
“I have to tell you this story on Dad,” she said. “He was deer hunting in Elizabethtown, down in Bladen County, and ended up helping build the little Freewill Baptist church there.”
“Well, I noticed the footings were dug, so I asked the folks there what they were doing and they said they were building a sanctuary,” her dad joined in. “I told them if they’d pour the footings I’d lay the foundation.”
“When Dad finished he wouldn’t take any money and they gave him a plaque that said, ‘To those who believe, He will lighten their path,’” Scott said.
“Sometimes you have a trade you can use to help someone; that’s worth more than money,” he said.
“It makes me proud to look around and see all the work that Dad did,” she said.
“And it’s all still standing,” he said with a laugh. “Mr. Searcy taught us well. I’ll be thinking about him and our little graduation ceremony at the Parkway Restaurant when I watch Hazel Jean walk across the big auditorium stage to get her diploma.”
Meanwhile, both plan to attend the April 2 festivities since they have double reason to celebrate.
SCC President Cecil Groves will honor Childers and other special graduates during the noon cake-cutting in the Balsam Center Lobby.
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