The Woodward Alumni Hall of Fame Association
Shirley J. Foxe-Hall Inducted 2013 - Class of 1948
A child of the Depression, Shirley graduated from Woodward months before the historic presidential rivalry of Truman & Dewey in 1948. During Shirley's Senior year at Woodward not only did she obtain the highest grade point average, she assumed the role of Editor-In-Chief of the SAGA, Woodward's yearbook. After consulting with her advisers, Raymond Sheline and Hazel McManamon, and with careful consideration, Shirley chose "The Wild & Wooly West" theme for the 1947-1948 yearbook and was the first SAGA to use color.
Shirley's Senior Prophecy in the Saga was particularly farsighted regarding her immediate career choice. "Shirley Foxe is head obstetrician and is quite successful; even though she doesn't get too many patients; for the hospital is for broken down old souls." Shirley received a one year scholarship to the University of Toledo in the Pre-Med program and with no money forthcoming for future studies, Shirley enlisted in the United States Army to obtain the needed education. The Army placed Shirley at the Brooke Army Hospital where she received training as a Hematologist and
Autopsy Assistant at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D. C. During her stint at Walter Reed, Shirley specialized in an experimental program for the treatment of Hodgkin's disease.
Shirley left Walter Reed in 1950 and was deployed to Tokyo, Japan where she met her husband Raymond Hall, a career military officer. Their first child, a daughter, was born as North Korea invaded the South. With the end of the Korean hostilities, they returned to the United States with an addition to their family, a son, in 1953. Leaving the Army, Shirley concentrated on their four children and home in the Washington area. Their next move took the family to Taipei, Taiwan where she seized an opportunity to teach first grade at the Taipei American School. While in Taiwan, Shirley served two terms as President of the Military Wives before returning to the United States in 1960. From teaching first grade to physiology and anatomy at the high school level in Chicago, Shirley was amazed at how easy the transition was. "If you can teach, you can teach at any level."
When Shirley's husband left for Vietnam in 1964, she packed-up the family and moved to Missouri where she attended the University of Missouri part time and worked as a substitute teacher. When Shirley received her teaching certificate for Missouri she accepted an offer to teach gifted 4th and 5th grade students.
Education was an ongoing priority that she pursued with a vengeance culminating with a Master's in Education plus 45 that certified Shirley as a Testing Specialist and Counselor. In 1979 her classroom skills and innovation in her teaching methods brought her the coveted Horace Mann Award for Missouri's outstanding teacher of the year.
Although Shirley retired in June of 1990, one of her proudest achievements was a State Grant to teach Saturday classes to individuals and small groups of students to overcome weaknesses that were exhibited in the classroom. Shirley knew that she was successful when the other students in the classroom wanted to participate in the Saturday classes. The tutoring program developed by Shirley was recognized by the state as one of the achievements of the State and Federal Grant Programs.