Alumni Spotlight: Ruth Damron

“I can tell you what my least favorite memory was; it was having my dad as a teacher," Damron laughed. 

Toccoa Falls College has been Ruth Damron's home for her entire life. She went to school at TFC from first grade through college, graduating in 1957. She was the first person to graduate from primary school up through her secondary education. Her father was the Dean of Men, a position that no longer exists at Toccoa Falls College. “He taught a lot of things… History, Biology, Spanish," Damron joked. At the time, the college only had two deans: one for all the men and another for all the women on campus.  

During her time on campus, very few students had vehicles. This created a great sense of community for her and her friends. Damron remembers times when all the faculty resided on campus and even planned campus events. Picnics and climbs to Black Mountain were held, but the event she remembers most is the faculty talent night. “My mother rode in on a horse as her talent, and my father told a story; he always had a strong photographic memory,” she recalled.

Aside from the memories of being a student, Damron feels that Toccoa Falls College prepared her to teach. After teaching for one and a half years in Pensacola and 31 years in Stephens County, she feels that her education prepared her for the diversity she experienced in the public school system. 

“It helped me adapt to the different situations and people that I would come across,” she stated. “I had always been in private school, so I had never been in a public-school setting,” she explained. 

Teaching while public schools integrated, Damron is confident that she learned exactly how to be a teacher: love and treat everyone equally. She never allowed the political or social climate to deter her from loving students and teaching them to read and write well.