Donald William MCCAVICK

MCCAVICK, MUNSON, RICE

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/30/2009 at 09:01:12

http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/SCANNED/mccavick.pdf.

IN MEMORIAM
DONALD WILLIAM MCCAVICK

Donald William McCavick was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on April 24, 1910, and died in Austin, Texas, on June 23, 1951. He was married to Lillian Munson of Kanawha, Iowa, on December 29, 1938, Surviving, besides his wife, are three daughters: Karen, Signe, and Brenda, all of whom reside in Austin. His mother, Mrs. Clara McCavick, and his sister, Mrs. Ray Rice, reside in Vinton, Iowa. Mr. McCavick was educated in the public schools of Iowa and in the Iowa State Teachers College, where he received a Bachelor's Degree, and the University of Iowa, where he received the Master's Degree. Mr. McCavick served as Science Supervisor and Director of Visual Aids in the Demonstration School of the Iowa State Teachers College for five years. He also taught classes in Visual Aids at the University of Iowa and was head of the Science Department and Director of Visual Education in a Junior High School in Iowa City. At the time of his death, he had been Director of the Bureau of Visual Instruction of the Extension Division of The University of Texas since September 1, 1943.

Mr. McCavick's outstanding service to The University might be classified under three categories:
1. He constantly improved the service of The University of Texas to the schools and citizens of Texas by his emphasis on securing and distributing significant educational films and in holding training clinics for teachers and supervisors in public schools in regional areas. In this program he worked cooperatively and harmoniously with Dr. Ben F. Holland of the College of Education on the Main Campus. He and Dr. Holland were warm personal friends and real co-workers. His leadership in these matters was recognized throughout Texas.
2. He, in cooperation with Dr, Holland, furnished leadership for visual aids service bureaus and departments of public schools, colleges and universities of the State, in bringing about a better understanding with respect to visual aids program and fuller cooperation and unity of effort for the whole State in this area.
3. As a member of the Campus Committee on Visual Aids, whose purpose it was to promote more use of visual aids in campus teaching, he was able to steer the thinking in the direction of a centralized service in the Extension Division for the whole campus, thus saving much duplication in effort and cost. The esteem in which Mr. McCavick was held by his associates in the State is indicated by a resolution adopted at the regular meeting of the Audio-Visual Educational Section of the Texas State Teachers Association on November 24, 1950.

The Resolution follows:
WHEREAS, we consider that the absence from this meeting of our esteemed friend and co-worker, Mr. Don McCavick, is a great loss which is felt by each member personally, and WHEREAS, his services have been of vital importance to this department of education and to teachers throughout the State for many years in developing better methods and techniques in using materials of instruction available to interested teachers, and in the constant and wise cooperation in the solution of many problems, and WHEREAS, his splendid character and extraordinary abilities in the position as Director of Visual Education Department of The University of Texas, which he has filled so admirably/have been so widely appreciated,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED on this the 24th day of November, A.D., 1950, that the members of the Department of the Audio-Visual Education Section, Texas State Teachers Association, hereby express a deep and sincere gratitude to this invaluable member of our group.
Certified:
Audrey Hebert, President
Lucy A. Posey, Secretary

Great as was Mr. McCavick's professional service to Texas, his personal relations were even more significant. He was a man among men and measured up fully to the statue of a man. He could "walk with kings, nor lose the common touch." Those who knew him best loved him most and recognized more fully his real greatness as a Christian citizen. He not only practiced Christian principles in exemplary living, but he believed that the Christian should identify himself with a church group. He and Mrs. MsCavick were active members of the University Methodist Church and especially of the Couples Class in the Sunday School of that church. The three lovely daughters were always present in the Sunday School. The parents brought them to Sunday School, they did not merely send them. Mr. McCavick was an ideal family man. In that connection his every thought was "What is best for the family group individually and collectively?" He was a kind and considerate husband and father and loved his home and found pleasure in the family group. The devotion of the staff of the Visual Instruction Bureau during the months of his last illness attested to the esteem in which he was held. Many were the sacrifices of each of them in order that the work might go forward. Hours of overtime were spent on the job without complaint. When the matter was discussed, the statement* invariably came: "We will do anything for Don," as he was fondly called. The poem, quoted by his Pastor, Rev. Edmund Heinsohn, at the funeral, would, the Committee believes be an appropriate conclusion to this memorial:

No, not cold beneath the grasses,
Not close walled within the tomb;
Rather, in our Father's mansion,
Living in another room.
Living, like the one who loves me,
Like my child with cheeks abloom,
Out of sight, at desk or Schoolbook,
Busy in another room.
Nearer than my son whom fortune
Beckons where the strange lands loom,
Just behind the hanging curtain,
Serving in another room.
Shall I doubt my Father 's mercy?
Shall I think of death as doom,
Or the stepping o'er the threshold
To a bigger, brighter room?
Shall I blame my Father's wisdom?
Shall I sit enswathed in gloom,
When I know my loves are happy—
Waiting, in another room.

James R. D. Eddy
James Knight
Ben Holland
T. H. Shelby, Chairman
Filed with the Secretary of the General Faculty by Dean T. H. Shelby, Chairman of the Special Donald William McCavick Memorial Resolution Committee November 13. 1952. Distributed among the members of the General Faculty by the University Stenographic Bureau November 15, 1952.