The following is from the Dorothy Peacock Elementary School website.Miss Dorothy Dickson Peacock was employed as a teacher by the Langley School Board (British Columbia) from September, 1924, until she retired in 1969 - a total of 45 years of service.
Dates and Locations
Sept. 1924-June 1936, Murrayville Elementary School - 12 years
Sept. 1936-Dec. 1937 Belmont Elementary School - 1 1/2 years
Jan. 1938-June 1958 Langley Prairie Elementary School - 20 1/2 years
Sept. 1958-June 1969 Aldergrove Secondary School - 11 years
Total 4 5 years
Her Biography: Miss Dorothy Peacock was born in Miami, Manitoba, on June 12, 1904, the daughter of the Reverend T. R. (Thomas Robert)Peacock, a Presbyterian minister.
When Dorothy was 1 1/2 years old, her mother died, and she was sent to live with relatives. She was reunited with her father, who had remarried, in Chase, B. C. where she took her elementary schooling. Her high school work was taken at Kamloops and King Edward High School in Vancouver, where she "boarded out" in both places.
In 1920 the Peacock family came to Murrayville where Reverend Peacock was minister of Sharon Presbyterian (later United) for 5 years. Dorothy did not spend much time with her family in Murrayville because she was attending Normal School (teacher training).
When she graduated from Normal School in 1921, she could not get a teaching position because she was not yet 18 (as the law then required), so she went to work for the B.C. Telephone company as a switch board operator in Vancouver. By September 1924 she was being considered for a supervisory position. But, in early September, 1924, an incident occurred at Murrayville School that caused a teacher to resign. Mr. J. W. Berry, Chairman of the Langley School Board, offered the position to Dorothy. In a decision that changed her whole life, she accepted and entered the teaching profession.
Dorothy's first class in 1924 and their1993 Class Reunion
She spent the next 12 years teaching grades 3 and 4 at Murrayville, which was a 4 room school. Then, at the request of the School Board she moved to the one-room Belmont School on Bradshaw Road (40th Avenue). The reason? The School Board kept hiring beginning teachers for one-room schools, and the 55 students at Belmont proved too much for them to handle.
Miss Peacock needed only a year and a half to settle the school down. Her reward? She was moved to Langley Prairie Elementary school where she taught for the next 20 1/2 years, including one year as principal.
In September, 1958, she was asked by the School Board to go to the new Aldergrove Secondary School to teach home economics, there being a shortage of home economics teachers. This was even before she was qualified to teach in a high school. However, she received her Bachelor of Education Degree in 1964, by summer school and night school classes. At Aldergrove she was noted for her success with boys' cooking classes, long before the advent of Chef Training programs.
In 1969 she retired after 11 years at Aldergrove and 45 years in the district. Her last Principal at Aldergrove was N.A. Sherritt, whom she had taught in grade 3 at Murrayville School, 41 years earlier.
During her 45 years as a teacher and her 28 years of retirement, Miss Peacock was active in many professional, community, and church organizations. She was President of the Langley Teachers' Association from 1949-1951. She served on the Board of the Langley Memorial Hospital for 9 years, from 1970-1978. She was an active board member of the Langley Arts Council. She was an Honourary Life Member of the BC Teachers' Federation and a charter member of the Langley Retired Teachers' Association.
Dorothy played golf until she was 89 years old. Her biggest asset was her sense of humour. She was famous for her ability to reduce a meeting to shambles with one well-placed remark.
After a short illness, Dorothy Peacock died on September 21, 1997, at the age of 93.
Our thanks to Mr. N.A.Sherritt for this Biography"
(From School website)
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