Biographical Text
Associate Professor Emerita of Business Education and Office Administration Kathryn Croft Tully (January 16, 1918-) was born in Ansted, West Virginia. Her mother was Lula Milam, an elementary teacher and church organist who married Samuel Howard Croft from Augusta County, Virginia, in 1905. Her father was head bookkeeper for the Gauley Mountain Coal Company until he started his own partnership, managing an office and coal company stores. Tully's grandmother, Florence Malcolm Milan Legg, was the first home economics teacher in the state of West Virginia. She had one sister, Florence Madelyn Croft, now deceased, who became a counselor at Appalachian State University after teaching for thirty years in West Virginia. After graduating from Ansted High School, Tully entered Concord College in Athens, West Virginia, where she earned a B.A. degree in English in 1938. She then took evening classes at the West Virginia Institute of Technology in Montgomery; attended summer sessions at Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, Ohio; and entered the law school at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, working on a business degree. Tully received her M.A. degree in business from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, in 1940. From 1938 until 1942, she taught English and business at Nuttal High School in West Virginia. In June 1940, Professor Croft married Henry Montgomery Tully. The couple had one son, Samuel Montgomery (January 6, 1944-), who has a B.S. degree in industrial arts from the West Virginia Institute of Technology, an M.A. degree from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, and a Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University in College Station. He is employed as chief of technology for the governor of West Virginia in Charleston and is president of Communication Technologies, a consulting organization specializing in the design of large-area video and data networks. Samuel has two sons: Christopher Montgomery and Stephan Croft. In September 1942, Tully accepted a position as head of the business department at Oak Hill High School in Oak Hill, West Virginia. In 1943, she and her husband moved to Charleston, West Virginia, where she accepted a position at South Charleston High School; however, she took leave from the South Charleston school to accompany her husband, who was attending officers candidate school, to California. When her husband returned to the South Pacific, Tully came back to Oak Hill, West Virginia, where her son was born. In 1944, she accepted a position in the Department of Business at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, where she taught until her husband received his discharge from the Army in 1947. Tully then became assistant professor of business at her alma mater, Concord College, teaching there from 1949 until 1952. In 1952, she resigned at Concord to move with her husband to Cincinnati, Ohio. Soon after the Tully family moved to Cincinnati, "Hank" Tully became disabled due to old service injuries. Professor Tully was then hired by the Demonstration School of Appalachian State Teachers' College (now Appalachian State University) to teach high school and methods of business education for the college. During her employment at Appalachian State, she completed work for the M.A. degree in guidance and counseling. In 1955, she accepted a position in the Department of Business Education at Appalachian State and served as the chair of that department for one semester until a permanent chair could be found. At Appalachian State, Tully was active in many campus and national organizations. She held offices in Delta Pi Epsilon (graduate honors), Delta Kappa Gamma (honor teacher), the Boone Business and Professional Women's Club, the North Carolina Education Association, the Eastern Star, and the Watauga County chapter of the American Red Cross. She was also active in the National Business Educators Association, the National Education Association, the Higher Education Association, the International and United Business Association, and the North Carolina Business Education Association. Tully has been listed in Personalities of the South, International Leaders, and several other educational publications. After thirty years of teaching in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, Tully retired in December 1976 and received emerita status that same year. She and her sister moved to Roanoke, Virginia, in 1977. Since retirement, Tully has held offices in the Williamson Road Women's Club, the Blue Ridge District Women's Club, and the Welcome Wagon. She is active in St. James Episcopal Church and volunteers for the Reading Service for the Blind over radio station Voice of the Blue Ridge. She has visited Russia, England, Scandinavia, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Sources: Appalachian State University files and personal correspondence. -Dr. Richard D. Howe
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