Charline Lamons

Georgia Charline Lamons attended Oklahoma State University, where she received her Bachelor's degree in 1937 and earned her graduate degree in Education in 1941. The next year, she was hired as an English teacher for Okmulgee High School and remained on staff there until until 1959.

At Okmulgee, Charline was a formidable talent and an innovative teacher specializing in Reading and utilizing cutting edge technology in her reading laboratories, such as the tachistoscope, an apparatus used for speed-reading training that flashes images on a screen to test memory and comprehension. Lamons also held long-standing membership of the Business and Professional Women's Club, co-chartered the Future Teachers of America club, and was, herself, a charter member of the American Association of University Women. When Lamons brought her Okmulgee High School career to a close in 1961 and accepted a position in the English Department of Grossmont Junior College, she brought with her to San Diego her elderly mother and remained her steadfast caregiver until her death in 1980.

During her first decade of service, she was formative to the growth of the English Department: in addition to launching a new Reading Program, Lamons tripled the Department's size during her two non-consecutive terms as Department Chair, adding a whopping thirteen new full-time instructors to the staff, more than any other English Department Chair in the history of the Department. Several years after her mother's death, in 1983, Charline Lamons retired from teaching and returned to Okmulgee, Oklahoma to rekindle past attachments with colleagues, students, and families.

Regardless, Charline continued to maintain her connections to Grossmont colleagues for the next sixteen years. By September 1999, Charline's mobility became very restrictive, and she was placed in the care of a local convalescent facility. When word came down to her Grossmont colleagues that she was beginning to feel isolated, former Grossmont colleague and friend Ray Resler flew to her bedside from San Diego with a wireless keyboard and a webTV unit in hand, so that Charline could use e-mail. From then on, friends in San Diego kept in close contact with her until her death in June 2002. She was 85 years old.

Upon her passing, the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma set up the Charline Lamons Memorial Scholarship, annually awarded to a full-time Bristow High School female student demonstrating leadership potential and involvement in school and extracurricular activities.

• My full gratitude goes to Tom Scanlan, whose commitment to Grossmont College's retirement newsletter, GCCCD Grapevine, and his sharp and comprehensive institutional memory have made possible to write Charline Lamons's bio, and indeed many other bios in this archive.
• Many, many thanks to Homer Lusk, Professor Emeritus and former English Department Chair who was not only hired by Charline Lamons in 1969 (and who, in turn, hired me as an adjunct in 1990 when he was Chair), but who has retained a wealth of photos, clippings, and other archive-worthy materials from his time at Grossmont, all of which has made possible a degree of detail indispensable to a Department archive.
• Finally, a handshake of appreciation goes out to Okmulgee High School Principal Kelly Anderson and Jeremy Ramsey, Superintendent of Okmulgee Public Schools, whose interest and accommodations of my research into Charline Lamons has qualitatively added to this page. Thank you, both. 

• Lamons, Charline. Letters. Oklahoma Today March-April 1991: p6.

• Bristow Education Foundation Lamons/Alexander Scholarship. Funds Directory. Communities Foundation of Oklahoma. On-line. Accessed 10 May 2015.
• Grossmont College: Celebrating 50 Years [1961-2011]. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 2011.
• "Lamons, Charline." Migma 62: A Yearbook and Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. La Mesa, CA: Grossmont Junior College / Monte Vista High School, 1962. np.
• _____. Migma 63-64: A Yearbook and Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. La Mesa, CA: Grossmont Junior College / Monte Vista High School, 1964. p10.
• _____. The Gallery, 1970: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1970. p27.
• _____. The Gallery, 1974: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1974. p58.
• "Lamons, Georgia Charline." Our Teachers. Obituaries. Okmulgee Alumni July 2004. On-line.
• Lamons, Georgia Charline. Obituaries. Tulsa World (Tusla, OK) 23 June 2003. On-line.
• “Martha Ann Jones Weds James Whyte, Jr.” Warrenton Banner (Warrenton, MO) 23 September 1948: p6
• "Okmulgee Organizes AAUW [American Association of University Women]." The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK) 2 March 1947: p54.
• Redskin Yearbook, Class of 1937. Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma State University, 1937.
• Scanlan, Tom. "Charline Lamons in Hospital." GCCCD Grapevine 9.1  (March 1999): p9.
• _____. "Charline Lamons Update." GCCCD Grapevine 9.4  (November 1999): p10.
• Scanlan, Tom and Gene Murray. "Charline Lamons Now Convalescing in Home Town." GCCCD Grapevine 9.3  (September 1999): p10.
• Steinbach, Bob. "Charline Lamons." GCCCD Grapevine 12.2  (July 2002): p18.
• Torchlight Yearbook Okmulgee, OK: Okmulgee High School, 1944-1959.

• James K. Bell 1961-1963
• Chester H. Palmer 1961-1965
• Martin Gerrish 1961-1964* (*tenured to Theater Dept. 1964-1996)
• George M. Washington 1961-1965* (*tenured to Foreign Languages Dept. 1965-1976)
• Ray Reynolds 1961-1968* (*tenured to Journalism Dept. 1968-1983)
• Charline Lamons 1961-1983 (Chair 1963-1966; 1968-1969) 
• Robert W. Danielson 1961-1986 (Chair 1961-1963; 1967-1969)