Name James Record | ||
James Franklin Record (June 21, 1861 – 1935) was a pastor, school teacher, and President of Pikeville Collegiate Institute, and later Pikeville College.
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Early life
Record was born to Mary Hetty Wyman Record and James Elliot Record in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. He had eleven other siblings, seven brothers and five sisters.
Record attended the country school until high school and he began teaching about this time. During the winter terms he would teach and the fall and spring terms he would attend class at Cochranton High School in Cochranton, Pennsylvania. After high school, Record attended Edinboro State Normal School. While a student there, he taught at Geneva, Pennsylvania and Deckard’s run. He also became principal of a two-room public school in Geneva. After teaching there for a year and still before finishing up at the Normal School, Record he went to Minnesota to answer a call from a friend who was a county Superintendent of schools. He spent one spring and a summer there before returning to Pennsylvania to be principle of the high school in Cooperstown, Pennsylvania.
Personal life
In December 1885, Record married Margaret E. Bell. Some years later they gave birth to a daughter named Alice Record. When Alice grew up, she attended Pikeville Collegiate Institute as a student under her father.
Early Years Continued
After finishing up at Cooperstown in May, Record and his wife spent six weeks in Edinsboro until returning to Cooperstown that following September. That following spring and summer they were at Edinsboro State Normal School. That fall, Cochran secured a position at Deckard’s Run. Other than teaching, he and his wife did some religious work in Minnesota and Pennsylvania as well. The family lived at Cooperstown for less than two years before he was called to be a pastor in Kasota, Minnesota.
He then made his way up to North Dakota where he went to a job interview that he ended up having no interest in. The good thing about the trip was that he met Dr. Fulton who was originally from Lexington, Kentucky was on the Board of Trustees of Pikeville Collegiate Institute in Pikeville, Kentucky. After Record was offered the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Pikeville and principal of the Pikeville Collegiate Institute, he accepted. He left Kasota the next summer. According to books in the Special Collections Room of the University of Pikeville, he is perhaps best remembered for all of his faith in the institution, and for the growth of Pikeville College and education in Pike County. His wholehearted devotion to his work inspired a number of mountain boys and girls to dedicate their lives to teaching.
Pikeville College Years
In December 1899 through 1911, Record spent his first years as president of Pikeville College. During the summer of 1905, Mr. Record received a Ph.D. degree. Through his efforts and those of his co-workers, Pikeville attained a high degree of efficiency. During those early years, Dr. Record taught the science of government, psychology, and mathematics. His influence in the public schools was widespread and extended to a number of mountain counties. During his first term served, he accomplished many things, such as establishing a training school for teachers in 1901. In 1908, The Pikeville Collegiate Institute’s The Derriana, women’s dormitory was dedicated as being the first building on the upper campus. In the same year, the first Alumni organization for the school was organized. In 1909, the School Catalogue first carries the name “Pikeville College”.
In 1911, Dr. Record temporarily gave up his work at the College and became the Educational Superintendent of the Sabbath School, a work of the Presbyterian Church in the state of Michigan. Dr. Record returned to Kentucky to spend another term as president from 1915-1932. Some of the things that were accomplished during this time under his presidency were that in the year 1921 the gymnasium for the College was opened and the first-ever basketball game was played. Two years later in 1923, ground was broken for the Administration building. Also, in that same year another great milestone was reached when the first Junior College Graduation was held. Two more years later in 1925, the First Founder’s Day was held on October 21 of that year. Also in 1925, the laying of the cornerstone of the Administration building was put into action. In 1927, the first Highlander year book was published. In 1928, the school took on the name of Pikeville College Bears and in 1929, another dormitory, known as Wickham Hall, was completed.
Final years
After Record served his time at the college he left due to the declining health of his wife. In 1962, Pikeville College dedicated Record Memorial Hall to him, almost thirty five years after his death in 1935.
Record is remembered for was a sermon that he gave to the students in chapel, which closed with the words:
That is a mistaken notion of life preparation that counts the results of it only in dollars and cents. That sees in it only a commercial value, that looks upon it only as a means to an end, and that end the accumulation of wealth. The highest ideal of life is not what I can get out of the world and the people in it, but what can I give to the world and to its people. (53)