Education

Education. . Beginning as early as the 1840s, Randolph County has played a leading role in promoting educational endeavors throughout east central Indiana, the state, and the nation. The Union Literary Institute, founded by members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Greenspork Township in 1846, was one of the first racially integrated schools in the country. From 1867 to 1901, Ridgeville was the home of the Free Will Baptist College. Farmland native Lee L. Driver (1867-1960), County Superintendent of Schools from 1907 to 1919, oversaw the consolidation of more than 100 one-room school houses, resulting in Randolph County being regarded as the model county in the nation for school consolidation and Driver to become known as the nation's leading expert on rural school consolidation. Union City educator, Roy P. Wisehart (1887-1974), served as Indiana's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1927 to 1931. John R. Commons (1864-1945), a 1881 graduate of Winchester High School, became one of the nation's most important 20th century economists as a scholar and professor at the University of Wisconsin. Union City native Dr. Earle Raymond Hedrick (1876-1943) served as founder and president of the Mathematical Association of America as well as a highly successful provost and vice president of the University of California. Pierre F. Goodrich (1894-1973), attorney, businessman, and son of Indiana governor James P. Goodrich, established in 1960 Indianapolis - Based Liberty Fund, Inc, one of the leading private education foundations in the world. Dr. Florence Hesser (born 1925) served in Washington, D.C. as a professor of education and director of George Washington University's Reading Center for more than 20 years. Union City born Dr. Donald R. Atkinson (1940-2008) became a nationally known psychological counselor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a scholar of multicultural counseling psychology.