{"id":25339,"date":"2015-10-05T14:24:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T18:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=25339"},"modified":"2020-09-13T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T19:09:18","slug":"malcolm-arny","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=25339","title":{"rendered":"MALCOLM ARNY Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: Biography – Staff\/Personnel<\/h5>\n

MALCOLM ARNY Staff<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Malcolm Arny: Guidance Counselor and
Teacher of Civics, Current History\u00a01940-1942<\/strong><\/p>\n

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TAGS:<\/strong> Malcolm Arny; guidance counselors; teachers; social work; curriculum; mountain communities; student guidance; John Spelman III; Pine Mountain spirit; counselors; Martha Anne Keen; sheep; mountain cabins;<\/p>\n

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\"Malcolm

Malcolm Arny, Counselor meeting with student in 1941. [X_100_workers_2581_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1940, Malcolm Arny, at\u00a0age 27, had just graduated from college and was living with his parents in\u00a0Montclair, New Jersey. Soon he found himself traveling to an entirely different world nestled\u00a0in the Appalachian mountains of southeast Kentucky, where he had acquired a position with the Pine Mountain Settlement School.<\/p>\n

According to Malcolm Arny’s daughter, Suzanne Arny Fullar, Arny had always told her that he first learned about Pine Mountain when the School’s dance troupe came to Montclair, NJ,\u00a0Arny also heard of the School from\u00a0Mrs. McCormack of the New York School of Social Work where\u00a0he had just completed his\u00a0graduate studies in social work. After reading a pamphlet titled “Community Service in the Curriculum,”\u00a0written by Glyn Morris<\/a>, he wrote the following to Morris, then the School’s director, in a letter\u00a0dated May 24, 1940:<\/p>\n

…I was impressed with the school’s progressive social outlook and the influence which this has had on your curriculum for the benefit of the mountain communities….Since my visit to your section of the country I have realized the great potentialities of the mountain people for self-progress and I admire their initiative in making use of their resources. <\/em><\/p>\n

As in the past, their chief obstacle seems to be the geographic features of their country which hinder communication and retard social progress. It appears to me that the Pine Mountain School has taken a realistic approach toward the community’s needs in offering to students the opportunity of learning how to help themselves and their communities instead of holding strictly to a formal program of education which has relatively little value in meeting their immediate needs.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arny enclosed a completed application form that described his\u00a0interests in group work (discussion groups and group activities), Boy Scout activities, vocational and personal guidance, and the social sciences (history and politics). His education included graduating from Irving High School in Tarrytown, NY, in 1933 and from Union College, Schenectady, NY, with an A.B. in Social Studies in 1937. He then New York School of Social Work in NYC in 1940 but did\u00a0not graduate. Throughout\u00a0his\u00a0six years at school, he had worked at\u00a0various jobs: at\u00a0summer camps,\u00a0the\u00a0Union College library, a fraternity house and as a clerk in\u00a0four\u00a0different businesses.<\/p>\n

A June 1940 letter to Morris from one of Arny’s references, Dr. Charles Waldron, Secretary at\u00a0Union College,\u00a0provided\u00a0an example of Arny’s primary interest:<\/p>\n

He has had for years this keen desire to be of service to his fellow men…. He began by going about the country trying to know plain people and those at the very bottom of the economic ladder all over the land….It was not an adventure jaunt; it was a definite attempt to know at first hand plain people — their needs and their viewpoints.<\/em><\/p>\n

By June 1940 Arny had paid a visit to\u00a0Pine Mountain and was impressed with the School. He was hosted by Mr. John Spelman<\/a>, an artist-in-residence at the School and Arny’s roommate during his visit, as well as by some of the students. In his followup letter to Morris, he wrote:<\/p>\n

The students’ participation in acting as hosts to guests gives a stranger an intimate insight into the everyday life which otherwise would not be presented to him….I was most impressed by the spirit which pervaded the atmosphere of Pine Mountain. This spirit seemed to express itself not only in the enthusiasm of the leaders of Pine Mountain but it was also transmitted to the students in the form of a cooperative desire for the success and continued progress of the school. Among the many groups in various settings\u00a0which I have had the experience of knowing I have rarely noticed a similar expression of happiness….<\/em><\/p>\n

Although Arny questioned the future professional standing he would have after working at Pine Mountain, he decided that the “opportunities which Pine Mountain\u00a0would offer to a leader there would far offset any future disadvantages which might possibly arise from a lack of experience in a strictly social work organization.”<\/p>\n

Arny’s education, interests, and\u00a0experiences\u00a0indicated\u00a0to Morris a young man of promise, particularly with regard to student counseling. Morris offered Arny a counselor\u00a0position with a salary of $75.00 a month and maintenance.<\/p>\n

Arny arrived just before his starting date of July 1, 1940, moved into a furnished room at Boy’s House<\/a> and\u00a0began his new work with\u00a0enthusiasm. For the next two years he taught classes in\u00a0civics and current history and served as a guidance counselor for the boarding school students.<\/p>\n

Fern (Hall) Hayes<\/a>, a secretary in the Office, remembered Malcolm Arny well. At one point during Arny’s employment, Glyn Morris\u00a0had\u00a0assigned Fern\u00a0and Georgia (Ayers) Dodd<\/a> to assist Malcolm with his secretarial tasks. Arny\u00a0had\u00a0become so deeply involved with individual student counseling that he found it difficult to\u00a0keep up with the paperwork and record-keeping that the guidance position required.<\/p>\n

\"Malcolm

Malcolm & Martha Ann (Keen) Arny at PMSS, 1940s. Photo courtesy of Suzanne Arny Fullar. [pmss_archives_arny_photo6.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

At the beginning of his\u00a0second school year, a new worker, Martha Anne Keen<\/a>, arrived to teach English and dramatics\u00a0and serve as a housemother. She stayed two years, from September 1941 until June 1943. By that time Malcolm was no longer working at the School, but it wasn’t long after Martha Anne left that the two married on August 21, 1943, in Miami Beach, Florida. According to their marriage certificate, the ceremony took place\u00a0in the Office of the Chaplain at the\u00a0Officer Candidates School in Miami.<\/p>\n

During the Christmas season after Arny’s stay at\u00a0Pine Mountain, he sent the School a card with this handwritten note:<\/p>\n

[Greetings] to all those at Pine Mt. Settlement School both\u00a0workers and students whose association during the last two years has meant so much. I trust that the future may bring us together again.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Malcolm

Malcolm & Martha Ann (Keen) Arny, c. 1942. Photo courtesy of Suzanne Arny Fullar. [pmss_archives_arny_ photo3-2.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

In July 1942\u00a0Arny\u00a0had enlisted in the U.S. Army for the duration of the war and was stationed at Ft. Thomas, Kentucky. In December 1943, a letter<\/a> to Barbara Spelman Allen (John Spelman’s sister and former PMSS worker), reported a PMSS visit by the Arnys:\u00a0“Martha Anne Keen Arny and Malcolm Arny are visiting here for a few days while he is on leave from Camp at Greensboro, North Carolina.” The letter was truncated, but possibly written by then Director William Webb<\/a><\/p>\n

As of May 1945, Arny, by then\u00a0a lieutenant, and his wife Martha were living in Holladay, Utah.\u00a0After the war, he went on to Columbia University’s School of Social Work (New York, NY) on the GI Bill and graduated with a Master of\u00a0Social Work in February 1949.<\/p>\n

\"Kitty

Kitty and Libby, children of Malcolm & Martha Ann (Keen) Arny at PMSS swimming pool, 1950s. Photo courtesy of Suzanne Arny Fullar. [pmss_archives_arny_photo4.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

Malcolm and Martha then returned to Harlan County, Kentucky, with their two daughters, Suzanne and Katherine (Kitty), to work in the Harlan County Schools as a social worker. The eventually had two additional children, Elizabeth\u00a0(Libby) and Martha Jane (Jane).<\/p>\n

Suzanne Arny Fuller describes the family photographs that she contributed to her parents’ biographies:<\/p>\n

“There are two of my parents at Pine Mountain in the 1940s and one of my Dad off to war. Then there are my two sisters, Kitty and Libby at the Pine Mountain pool in the 1950s when we lived in Evarts. Finally, there are my sons, Michael and Eric, with Burton in the 1980s. They loved to help him herd the sheep from near Big Log<\/a> to below Laurel House<\/a>. It is wonderful to have that three-generation connection to PMSS.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t