THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504280176
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
WITH A SHORT swearing-in at General District Court, 63-year-old Roderic A. Taylor took his place on the Chesapeake School Board Thursday.
Taylor replaces Jessie Lee Jr., who resigned his chairmanship and his seat on the nine-member board earlier this year. Taylor will serve out the nearly two years remaining in Lee's three-year term.
For Taylor, chairman of the art department at Norfolk State University, last week's appointment by City Council marked another milestone in a long and varied career.
He's done everything from teaching arts and crafts at a YMCA in Harlem, N.Y., to decoding secret messages for the National Security Agency in Washington.
He gained an appreciation for art from his father, who used to carve him wooden toys and boats, and gave him his first set of carving tools in elementary school. He has been a sculptor ever since. In his studio at Norfolk State, he carves figures from wood and stone, and creates bronze casts. One of his bronze figures, a sailor carrying a duffel bag in one hand and a book in the other, marks the entrance to the Navy's training center at Dam Neck in Virginia Beach.
But teaching has always been Taylor's first love.
As a kid, Taylor said, ``I had met many teachers, and I just thought they were great people. In those days, especially in the black community, the teachers were really leaders.
``Quite often, they lived in the community; and if they didn't, they would come visit on the weekends,'' he said.
Taylor has taught art classes in secondary schools and art and education classes at the college level. He worked as an educational consultant at a university in Alabama.
He paid his own way through college and graduate school; he now holds two master's degrees and a doctorate.
He settled in Chesapeake's Georgetown East section in 1972 with his wife and son.
``I thought it was a good place for my son to grow up, and it has been,'' he said.
Taylor said he has no plans to leave. A large piece of property he and his wife own in New Kent County, where they had hoped to retire, is just walking distance from a racetrack now under construction. So he most likely will retire in Chesapeake.
When his School Board term is up, he said he would consider defending his seat if Chesapeake is eligible for board elections by then.
Nationally, Taylor sees discipline and low academic standards as the biggest problems facing public schools. Students lack discipline and basic skills, such as reading and effective study habits.
``Sometimes they're the simple things that are missing, and it hampers the whole educational process,'' he said.
He said he will begin immediately an examination of Chesapeake's school system to see if city schools suffer the same weaknesses, or if there are other areas that need improvement. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Roderic A. Taylor will serve nearly two years on the School Board.
PROFILE
Roderic A. Taylor
Age: 63
Occupation: Chairman, Norfolk State University Art Department, 21
years
Wife: Ora W. Taylor
Son: Rodney A. Taylor, 27, graduate student at Old Dominion
University
Education: Bachelor's degree in art education, Virginia State
College, 1959; master's degree in fine arts, specialty in sculpture,
American University, 1966; master's degree in education, Alabama
State University, 1972; doctorate in art education, Pennsylvania
State University, 1974
Hobbies: Photography and collecting model trains
KEYWORDS: PROFILE CHESAPEAKE SCHOOL BOARD by CNB