Dr. Barbara Perry-Sheldon Retires

Rocky Mount, N.C.—Dr. Barbara Perry-Sheldon, a well-known and respected education professor at North Carolina Wesleyan College, retired at the end of May after 24 years of service to Wesleyan and to state, national, and international education groups. Her teaching career spanned 38 years, including several years in public schools and at James Madison University.

Her professional accomplishments were outstanding, and her dedication to her students left many with lasting memories of her kindness. Chandra Martin, an elementary education junior at Wesleyan, took three classes with Perry-Sheldon and knows her compassionate nature firsthand. When Martin needed 25 field experience hours for a course but had no car, Martin said Perry-Sheldon came to her and said, “If you need a ride, just let me know. I’ll take you there. We can work out a schedule.” They did. “Fortunately I had my hours by the end of the semester,” Martin said. “I appreciated it so much. I am truly going to miss her.”

Perry-Sheldon also was dedicated to education organizations. She served the North Carolina Association of Teacher Educators as president. She was president of the North Carolina Reading Association and still is secretary. She served on the board of the N.C. Association of Colleges of Teacher Education and is currently vice president. She was state vice president and chairman of several committees of Delta Kappa Gamma International, an honorary society for women educators.

Perry-Sheldon was instrumental in the accreditation of Wesleyan’s teacher education program by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. She coordinated Wesleyan’s involvement with the state’s Model Teacher Consortium, which has helped teacher assistants and others to become licensed teachers. She also headed grant projects that provided workshops.

In 1996-1997, Perry-Sheldon was honored as Wesleyan’s Jefferson-Pilot Lecturer. In addition, she twice received Wesleyan’s Frank Smith Wilkinson Award, which enabled her to present papers at an education conference in China and at the World Congress on Reading in Hungary.

Perry-Sheldon’s dedication to teacher education impressed those who worked with her. Carol Cowen, assistant superintendent of Roanoke Rapids City Schools and Director of Exceptional Children, has known Perry-Sheldon for more than 20 years. “I have been on the Teacher Advisory Board at Wesleyan for many years,” she said. “I always enjoyed interviewing students each semester and looking at their notebooks. It was always obvious that they were prepared and ready to go in the classrooms after their graduation…. I can look around our campuses and see many fruits of Barbara’s efforts and hard work to send us good students that have become exceptional teachers.”

When Perry-Sheldon leaves Wesleyan, she and her husband, Kenneth Sheldon, a retired school psychologist, plan to live in Boone, N.C., where she grew up. “Wesleyan has been good for me, a place where I could grow, lead, and help shape colleagues and students I’ve worked with,” she said. “When education is in your blood it’s hard to separate from it, so I will probably look for something to do and stay involved.”