{"id":487,"date":"2020-07-31T18:36:40","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T18:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/universityhistory\/?page_id=487"},"modified":"2023-04-07T19:48:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T19:48:08","slug":"ophelia-ann-parish","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/exhibits.truman.edu\/universityhistory\/biographies\/ophelia-ann-parish\/","title":{"rendered":"Ophelia Ann Parrish"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ophelia Ann Parrish<\/h1>\n

Demonstration School Director, 1899-1903<\/h5>\n
Head Librarian & Professor of Library Economy, 1903-1915<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ophelia Ann Parrish was born to Dr William & Ann Mirah (Eastin) Parrish on July 5, 1850 in Springfield, MO. In 1869, she graduated a two-year school for young ladies in Columbia, MO called Christian Female College. She traveled extensively in Europe and the Holy Lands, taught for a time in a rural school, and was principal at Pierce City, 1880-81, before accepting her first long-term appointment as English and French teacher at Springfield High School. In 1890, she took a year\u2019s leave to study at the Berlitz School of Languages in Berlin and at the Sorbonne and College of France in Paris. She then returned to Springfield High for an additional year before being named Assistant Superintendent of Schools in 1893. She left the Springfield system in 1899 to join the faculty at the First District Normal School.<\/p>\n\n

Parrish was the first faculty appointment made by Normal School\u2019s new president, John R Kirk, when he named her Supervisor of the Demonstration School. This was an elementary school operated on campus by the Normal faculty as practice for its student teachers. In 1903, when the decision was made to consolidate all the departmental libraries into one central college library, the Board of Regents selected her as the first full-time Librarian and gave her the assignment of organizing the new facility.<\/p>\n\n

In addition to her year of study in Europe, Parrish continued her education by attending various institutes and summer sessions. She studied at the Martha\u2019s Vinyard Summer School in 1890 and at the Cook County [IL] Normal over the summers of 1894-1895. After being named Librarian, she took courses in her new field at the Library School, Chautauqua, NY and spent the 1914-15 winter quarter training at Joseph F Daniels\u2019 library school in Riverside, CA.<\/p>\n\n

Off campus, Parrish was active in the Missouri Federation of Women\u2019s Clubs. She served at least two terms as the State Chair of the organization\u2019s Bureau of Literature and Reciprocity, which was the committee charged with helping local clubs organize their libraries in \u201cregular library order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

On October 29, 1915, Ophelia Parrish died. After a short memorial service at a funeral home in Kirksville, a large procession of students accompanied her casket to the Kirksville Wabash depot. President Kirk and several faculty members then took her home for burial at Springfield Cemetery.<\/p>\n\n

The Gentry-Parrish Memorial Loan Fund was established in honor of Miss Parrish and Professor BP Gentry by students and faculty that fall with the goal of providing financial aid to students in need. Gentry died from injuries received in a street car accident in Kansas City less than a week after Parrish\u2019s death. Other campus memorials to her include the Ophelia Parrish Building built in 1922 as well as an oil portrait by Jack Bohrer dedicated in 1948. \u201cOP,\u201d as the building is known on campus in oral shorthand, was for many years the home of Kirksville Junior High and served as the college\u2019s practice school. It now houses the university’s art, music, and theatre departments with up-to-date classrooms, studios, performance halls, and art galleries. The portrait of Parrish hangs larger-than-life in Pickler Memorial Library\u2019s Special Collections Department.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Please Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This biographical sketch has been compiled from secondary sources and may not be complete or totally accurate; it is therefore subject to update or correction.<\/p>

\u201cMiss Parrish\u2019s Illness Fatal\u201d.\u00a0The Index<\/em>. November 5, 1915.
\u201cMemorial Number\u201d.\u00a0The Index<\/em>. November 19, 1915.
Ryle, Walter H. Centennial History of the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College. Kirksville: the College, 1972.
Selby, P.O.\u00a0One Hundred Twenty-Three Biographies of Deceased Faculty Members<\/em>. Kirksville: Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, 1962.<\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ophelia Ann Parrish Demonstration School Director, 1899-1903 Head Librarian & Professor of Library Economy, 1903-1915 Ophelia Ann Parrish was born to Dr William & Ann Mirah (Eastin) Parrish on July 5, 1850 in Springfield, MO. In 1869, she graduated a two-year school for young ladies in Columbia, MO called Christian Female College. She traveled extensively … <\/p>\n

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