News

Floy and Fannie French

Floy & Fannie French, living around the turn of the century, were pioneers in the field of education. These women devoted their lives and energies to promoting education and a list of their achievements is nothing if not motivational. Such a list hints at the force of the drives that carried them and generates a great deal of accomplishments.

Floy, born in 1878, worked in library management, first here in New Mexico and later as head librarian at the Carnegie Library in Spencer, Indiana. While here, she supplied books to soldier training camps outside Deming during World War I. She personally selected and delivered books, a service she continued in Spencer, for the school children in several counties.

Her younger sister, Fannie born in 1883, graduated from this University in 1902, when it was known as the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. She organized the first Las Cruces High School and was its first principal at the age of 29. She later became a teacher of education at Morton College in Illinois. She worked there until past retirement age and then went on to tutor private school for a few years.

Both women returned to Las Cruces after they retired.

CONGRATULATIONS to Melodie Goode, 2003 French Award Recipient.