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John A. Renfro
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| The John A. Renfro Story | |||||||
John Renfro was born July 22, 1932 and lived all of his early life in Collinsville, first on Burroughs Avenue, then on Aurora Street, and later on Merrell Avenue. His father was Dr. John A. Renfro, a dentist in Collinsville, who died when his son was in high school. His mother was Jane Renfro, who grew up in Highland. His younger brother was Dick Renfro. Back then, John was called Jack by family and friends, and this continued throughout his life. Jack went through elementary and junior high years at Webster School. He enjoyed basketball, baseball, and running sports as well as Boy Scouts. Jack was full of energy, fun-loving, and sometimes mischievous. Then he went to the old Collinsville High School on Vandalia Street. Jack had a great time in high school where he participated in many school activities and clubs. He especially enjoyed being on the basketball and track teams. As a teenager, he had summer jobs at the Brooks Catsup factory and down on the horseradish farms. After graduating from high school in 1950, he went on to college at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He studied history, social studies, and physical education for a teaching degree and continued playing in several sports, until he graduated in 1954.
After finishing college, he was a teacher for a year at Virden, a small town south of Springfield. Then Jack was drafted into the Army and was sent to Korea for two years. Although the Korean War had already ended, American soldiers were stationed there to help keep the peace between North and South Korea. When Jack returned from Korea, he married his college friend, Mary Myers, from Centralia. They both worked as teachers in several Illinois towns. Throughout his teaching years, Jack taught history, social studies, and physical education and coached basketball, baseball, track, and football in different schools. He worked first at Warren High School, then at Winchester High School, later at Litchfield High School, and finally at Bremen High School in Midlothian, Illinois. During all of these years he continued to take summer school and night school in order to receive a Master of Education degree from the University of Illinois, an Administrative Certificate, and many other courses that he would be needing in this work. While he was at Bremen High School, he started working in the school administration, first as Dean of Boys, then Assistant Principal, finally as Principal. After seven years there Jack has a chance to return to his home town, Collinsville.
The new Collinsville High School was just being built when Jack and his family returned to his hometown in 1970. His new job as Administrative Assistant included planning the arrangement of classrooms within the high school and ensuring that the appropriate books, supplies, equipment, and staff were ready for the opening of that new school. At that time, he and Dallas Harrell were assistants to the Superintendent, Dr. Nolan Correll. After Dr. Correll died, Jack was named the Superintendent of Schools in 1975, a position that he held for the next 21 years. This was a very challenging job since Unit #10 included both elementary and high school districts as well as the Area Vocational School. Over the years there were many problems: old school buildings were disbanded, other schools were expanded as the population changed, and always there were great financial needs of the district for school supplies, buildings, teachers, and support staff. There were many different kinds of problems during those years, but through it all Jack was glad to continue this work. He enjoyed the challenge and was eager to take on the responsibility. He valued his working relationships with teachers, administrators, parents, and school board members over the years. The last big project he worked on was the preparation for building this fine school, and he had hoped to continue working until the school was opened. However, when he learned that he needed surgery, he retired from work in June 1996. Due to complications from heart surgery, he died on July 13, 1996. He would want to be remembered as a many who was proud to be serving Collinsville through his lifelong work with students of all ages and their parents and teachers.
Jack would also want to be remembered as a Christian man, and he was an active member of the First United Presbyterian Church during all his years in Collinsville. His greatest treasure was the family he and his wife, Mary, had built together. He had four children - John, Karen, Bruce, and Jean. All four children attended Collinsville schools and graduated here. In fact, some of Jack's great memories included awarding each of his children a high school diploma during graduation activities. All of his children went on to strengthen their future job opportunities and life choices by obtaining various college degrees. At this time, John, Karen, and Bruce have all married and three precious grandsons have been added to the family circle by John.
As someone who had so many years of experience with his own children and Unit #10 students, Jack wanted to be an encouragement to other parents. He knew that parenting can be a very hard and challenging job, but it is also very rewarding. Jack would encourage other parents to strive to be a role model for their children, to support and encourage their children to develop to their potential, and to given them unconditional love.
Having his many years of service to Unit #10 recognized and remembered by this school district and community is a great honor for John Renfro. His entire family is deeply appreciative that his memory has been honored through the naming of the John A. Renfro School.
Mary Renfro
April 1998