It is with great sadness that the Fork Union Military Academy family today received the news that J. W. "Jay" Pendergrass, a retired member of our faculty, passed away today. Jay Pendergrass was a longtime teacher, headmaster, and academic dean of the Academy, serving the school from 1948 until his retirement in 1990. Upon retirement, he and his wife, Hilda, moved to Massaunutten in the Shenandoah Valley but returned to Fork Union a decade later and had continued to reside here ever since. He was active in the Fork Union Baptist Church, served as a tutor of reading in the Fluvanna County schools, and volunteered with the Fluvanna County Historical Society. Jay was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Hilda, who died in March of 2015. His granddaughter, Kate Pendergrass, currently works in our Development Department.
A memorial service for Jay Pendergrass will be held at Fork Union Baptist Church on Saturday, February 4, at 11:00 AM. There will be a time of visitation with the family prior to the service at 10:00 AM and a reception in the fellowship hall following the service.
In 2006, Jay Pendergrass sat down with us for an interview about his time at Fork Union Military Academy. A transcription of some of his remarks is reproduced below:
I came to the Academy in 1948 as an instructor and retired in 1990 in the position of academic dean. I spent 42 years at the Academy and am the only one in the area now who was on staff when the one subject plan was instituted in 1950.
I began teaching History, English and German. We had students with first year German and the German instructor did not return for the next session. The administration found German on my transcript and asked me to teach 2nd year German. That year I taught 4 kids. I recall being at an alumni meeting a few years ago and a young man reminded me that he was one of the students in my German class.
I wore many hats at the Academy over the 42 years on faculty/staff: moved into the social studies department teaching US History, Senior English, named head of social studies department, and introduced US Government. During this time I took classes at UVA for my Masters which I received in 1953. A vacancy became available in the Junior School as Headmaster, I had been an instructor for 8 years, and I asked President, J.C. Wicker if I could be considered for the job. I served as Headmaster beginning in 1955-56 and remained in the Junior School until 1963. I came back to the Upper School as Assistant Headmaster, and in 1967 named academic dean and stayed there until retirement in 1990.
My hometown was Great Falls, SC. I graduated from Furman University in Greenville, SC. I remember when the Dean of Furman University called me into his office when he got information from Col. Wicker that FUMA was looking for instructors. He knew I was majoring in Education and also doing practice teaching. The Dean asked if I would be interested in the position at Fork Union. It happened that Dean Daniel was resident of Scottsville, VA and had attended FUMA in 1901-02 in its earliest stages. I remember telling him that after I got out of service and put that uniform away I didn’t plan on ever wearing one again – but I did for 42 years at FUMA. It was a good experience for us and this is where we raised our family. The families still keep in touch and when I came here in the 40s the children were close. I came with 12 new instructors out of college, many had been in service and then went to school and came back at the same time. Some of the instructors I recall were Pat or Peck Wickman, Marshall Staniney, John Wilmont, Stanley Kent (he was our father figure-little older), and Gus Lacy.
After I became academic dean we had become interested in affiliating with the VAIS. There had been a reputation that we were bringing in problematic students and this was not true. When the VAIS was formed it was a group of independent schools coming together. The first conference of the joint group was held on Fork Union Military Academy’s campus. I was very close to Jackie Herrod, Director of VAIS and she was looking for a school that could take all these schools. It was a huge crowd. We used classrooms all over the area. We held first annual conference of VAIS.