BY CYNTHIA ADAMS PHOTOS BY NANCY EVELYN
T
hese are a few of Sarah Carlton
Ganschow are also on her list of much-
she wanted to return to school when her
Proctor’s favorite things: Oscar
admired academics. Geographer Clifton
children were grown circa 1963.
Wilde and George Bernard
Shaw, history, the classics, political science,
The
Banner
Herald,
“I was 50 and most of the students
Pannell is another. It’s a long list, and it keeps growing as she adds classes. Proctor pays great attention to these
were 20,” she marvels. Taking two courses each
quarter
she
finished
her
The
chosen professors, and takes courses that
undergraduate degree in business
Economist, the Georgia Museum of Art,
enhance her world travels. And the
education. She began teaching at age 55
professors themselves are learning from
at Clark Central in Athens. Five years later,
Proctor, an intellectual bon vivant. In an
her husband, Henry Clay Pearson, Jr.,
interview last year, Vance commented,
whom she called “Daddy,” died.
her family, a close community of friends, and
travel.
Then,
there
are
the
pleasantries that make life worthwhile:
“She shows the path to a full life…a
good manners, gracious living, hot teas
hunger to learn more.”
and pre-warmed tea cups, long lunches where she catches up on Athens’ gossip
Lately, Proctor, a triple Dawg who
like the right thing to do.” It was
completed a master’s in education in
something she never wanted to stop but
1973 and a specialist’s in education in
did, retiring in 1982 at age 70.
at a good table with a central view of the
1975, is hungry again. She’s thinking of
crowd, hats, sparkling brooches and a
returning to Graduate School for further
good story well told.
studies. One fine August morning she
She evokes Katharine Hepburn in her memorable turn in the film On Golden Pond. Like Hepburn, Proctor strikes a determined, elegant figure and has lived long enough to earn a few innocent vices. Unlike Hepburn, she is no Yankee but was born and raised in the South proper— Savannah, Ga., and surrounding salt marshes near the Isle of Hope. Her southern accent is saline-tinged and is as precise as her mind.
“It (teaching) not only gave me something to do, but something that felt
Athens Forever!
presented herself to the Graduate School
Proctor remains stubbornly, ardently
to begin the process. Proctor, replete in
dedicated to Athens, her home since she
hat and patrician summer garb, spurred a
and her husband moved there in 1940
flurry of responses—graduate assistants in
when he accepted a job with the YMCA.
jeans, tank tops and Nikes spilled out of
“All of my children live west of the
cubicles to see the woman with the
Mississippi,” she sighs. She has dug into
hungry mind who has been studying for
the heart of Athens, with its leafy streets,
decades and who intends to continue,
colorful student life, an important
well, forever.
museum blocks away, and good lectures
And why not, Proctor wonders?
and fine company easily had. “What on
“I’m not interested in any more
earth would I do west of the Mississippi?”
degrees,” she says. “I’m 96! I’m just
she asks archly. “I would be bored to
satisfying my curiosity.”
death!” “I only will leave Athens,” she
A Hunger to Know… Testing Traditions Sarah Carlton Proctor, 96, known to her
pronounces, with a dignified intake of breath through the nose, mouth firmly
intimates and classmates as “Ms. Sarah,”
While she may admire, even embrace,
flings a pink mohair shawl around her,
tradition, Proctor clearly is of different
Her eyes narrow behind the wire-
gathers her purse, and then tests the
minds. There is the traditionalist and the
rimmed glasses. “Yes,” she repeats,
door. Satisfied, she heads out to lunch
free-thinking Proctor. The traditionalist
“that’s right. Feet first.”
with apologies about the walker. Only her
married at age 24 and had three children.
Hungering to experience more of
Proctor lives in the same house she has
the world, Proctor began to travel broadly
gait is slowing.
drawn, “feet first. Preferably dead.”
She has a great deal to talk about
occupied since 1948 as a young mother. It
after her husband’s death. She met a
over lunch. She discusses her approach—
is so close it’s practically in the university’s
fascinating man named Jack Proctor in
a personal manifesto—about continuing
pockets. She still attends the same church
the Atlanta airport. Their conversation en
education. It boils down to this: keep
(First Presbyterian). As for modern
route to the Soviet Union on a UGA
continuing! Find good professors and
inventions, she doesn’t care for them, she
alumni tour led to a six-week courtship,
latch onto them! In some cases, Proctor
says, especially computers. “I don’t have
which led to another happy marriage. The
has taken every course a professor
a computer. I don’t have any computer
pair traveled happily until his death four
teaches. John Vance, an English professor,
problems,” she ad libs, “but I rely upon
years later.
is one she follows closely. Historians Kirk
Uncle Sam’s mail and Fed Ex.”
Willis and Professor Emeritus Thomas
The free-thinking Proctor decided
Always, Proctor studied. She signed up for one or two courses a semester. Her
Graduate School Magazine
WINTER 2010
25