One of Auburn’s best-known citizens has been named to the Gov. Louie B. Nunn Teacher Hall of Fame. Eloise Hadden joins two other former teachers for the sixth class of this honor group.
The other two chosen by a statewide selection committee are Anne Padilla and Juanita Park.
The 2013 induction ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. (Eastern time) Feb. 26 at the State Capitol in Frankfort.
The widow of the late Vernon Hadden, Mrs. Hadden is the mother of Lewisburg Banking Co. Executive Vice President Edna Hughes, the mother-in-law of Auburn mayor-elect Mike Hughes, and the grandmother of Meredith and Sara Hughes. A resident of Atlanta, Meredith was instrumental in organizing her nomination for the honor.
The Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame was created in 2000 through a gift by former Gov. Nunn, who hoped to recognize the vital role that primary and secondary teachers in Kentucky play in the education of young people and the positive impact education has on the state’s economy. WKU was selected as the home of the Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame because of its more than 100-year history in teacher education.
Mrs. Hadden is the second former Logan County/Russellville teacher named to the Hall of Fame. An earlier section was the late Helen Raby.
A native of Raywood, Texas, Eloise Woodward Hadden taught Home Economics for 33 years in Logan and Simpson counties.
She taught at Auburn High School from 1954 to 1982, Logan County High School from 1982 to 1985, Logan County High School Homebound Teacher from 1985 to 1987, and Martha Layne Collins Pilot Project Career Ladder in Franklin in 1987. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1956 from WKU.
Known as “Mrs. Auburn” for work in the Logan County community, Hadden wrote grants to start the Auburn Historical Society and Auburn Museum and led the effort to get 136 homes and buildings in Auburn listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She has served on the Auburn City Council and the Logan County Tourism Commission.
Her numerous awards and honors include Logan County’s “Teacher of The Year” and first-runner up in the state competition in 1980, recipient of the 1995 Jefferson Award given by WBKO-TV and Daily News for public service and volunteer work in South Central Kentucky and WBKO’s “Hometown Hero” in 1999 for work with Auburn Library and Museum. Hadden has received several awards from WKU’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.
A native of New York, Anne Hardie Padilla has taught English and Composition for 50 years, including the past 27 years at Bowling Green High School.
Padilla taught in Staten Island, N.Y., from 1962 to 1965, Chicago from 1966 to 1970, and Western Kentucky University from 1976 to 1985. She has been at Bowling Green High School since 1985.
She received her bachelor’s degree in 1962 from Hunter College in New York City, master’s degree in 1966 from University of Illinois and completed her Ed.S. in Secondary Education at WKU in 1987, with a concentration in Applied Linguistics/ESL.
Her awards include Bowling Green Teacher of the Year in 1976, nominee for DisneyHand Teacher Award (Creativity in Teaching) in 2004 and University of Chicago Outstanding Teacher Award in 1995. In 1992, Padilla was part of the original group trained in implementation of Kentucky Educational Reform Act. She has served as a consultant for Advance Kentucky’s AP English Literature and Composition program and has participated in the WKU Writing Project.
A native of Louisville, Juanita Kennedy Park began her teaching career in 1944 in Ohio County and continued to work with student teachers at WKU until 2012.
Park spent the first 20 years of her 67-year teaching career at Rockport Elementary and High School teaching first through eighth grade from 1944 to 1965. In 1965 she taught first-graders at Western Kentucky State College’s Training School. Park’s career continued in 1966 at WKU’s Jones-Jaggers Laboratory School and then in WKU’s Teacher Education program where she supervised student teachers and conducted student teaching seminars until retiring earlier this year.
She attended WKU where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a master’s degree in 1959.
Park served as president of the Kentucky Association of Classroom Teachers in the mid-1960s and received several awards for her service with the Kentucky Education Association.
Other awards include the Kentucky Association of Teacher Educators (KATE) Presidential Award in 1988, Kentucky Federation of Business and Professional Woman’s Club “Young Careerist” Service Award in 1981, Kentucky Federation of Business and Professional Woman’s Club President’s Decathlon Award in 1980 and Kentucky Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (KASCD) President Unit Award in 1978.