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GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Student: At Pine Mountain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As a student at Pine Mountain Settlement School in the 1940s, George William Tye, better known as Bill or Billy Tye, must have left quite an impression on teachers and fellow students. When he was admitted to Pine Mountain as a freshman, his tests showed that his achievements were well past ninth grade, the first year of high school. Consequently, he was promoted immediately to tenth grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bill exhibited his keen intelligence when the work was interesting, such as current and American history, economics, and English. It was then that he excelled without much effort, delighting the teachers who found him challenging and refreshing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there were times when he frustrated his teachers. If the class or work duty didn\u2019t interest him, he performed poorly, particularly in areas that required practical application, such as, woodworking classes or auto mechanics. Instead, he worked slowly and carelessly, had difficulty in focusing, and distracted others with his chatter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years later, his classmates still remembered his tendency to be talkative. In the 1981 newsletter<\/a> for the Pine Mountain Association of Alumni and Friends, Mattie Ellen Ayers Hayes<\/a> wrote about the time Bill was asked to give a Chapel talk at the 1981 Homecoming:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of Bill\u2019s friends might remember that he was and still is, a long-winded type of fellow. His former roommates recall that at night they were afraid to even grunt, so as to discourage him from taking off on another long subject. So, he was allowed twenty minutes to give his talk and if he had exceeded that, the rest of us had made a secret pact to silently get up and file out!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In any case, Bill respected his teachers, easily accepting their criticism, and was congenial with his fellow students who enjoyed his ebullience and playfulness. According to one of the Principal\u2019s appraisal letters<\/a> to Bill\u2019s parents, dated December 20, 1944, \u201cHe is well liked by everyone and his election to the Citizenship Committee is an honor\u2026.\u201d <\/em>Bill remained on the Committee for the next two years, proudly writing to his parents that \u201cI received Full Citizenship, the highest citizenship rating the school offers to its students.\u201d He also expressed pride in another extra-curricular accomplishment: \u201cIn the journalism class I was asked to serve as editor of the school paper, The Pine Cone<\/a>, a position of which I was really proud and felt highly honored at being chosen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, Bill took pride in Pine Mountain Settlement School in general:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe students here are bound together by strong cords of harmony and amity. This is very valuable to each student as it has a great deal to do with molding one\u2019s character and making him a better citizen. <\/em>… [He was most impressed with] the way visitors react when examining the campus and school activities. Sometimes aloof at first, the simple friendliness of the students and workers soon melts the ice and they become one of us.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1945 Bill was finishing his junior year of high school at Pine Mountain and, possibly anxious to focus on his preferred subjects, applied to Berea College<\/a> in Berea, Kentucky. However, the School principal, Arthur Dodd,<\/a> encouraged Bill to withdraw and complete his senior year at Pine Mountain, explaining that <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe make every effort to keep a student who has been accelerated one year until he has gotten his diploma from Pine Mountain, and usually do not accelerate a student unless we are pretty certain he wishes to finish here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n About this time, Bill’s sister, Sylvia Rose Tye, who had also been attending Pine Mountain, withdrew from the School, although, according to Bill, her parents were urging her to return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill re-applied to Berea College in the spring 1946, when he was close to graduating from Pine Mountain. But later that summer he reported to Mr. Dodd that he had received a scholarship to the University of Kentucky<\/a> in Lexington and would be attending in the fall. \u201cI have been working all summer and with my earnings and the scholarship I don\u2019t think that I will have too much trouble with finances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next time the School heard anything about Bill Tye was in June 1957 when Bill was serving in the United States Air Force. The education advisor in the Office of Education Services at Eglin Air Force Base<\/a> in Florida asked then-director Burton Rogers<\/a> for Tye\u2019s transcripts, as he was currently attending Florida State University\u2019s \u201cBootstrap\u201d program. In a February 1958 letter<\/a>, Tye, now a USAF First Lieutenant (later a Major), asked the School to complete an application for admission to the University of Maryland\u2019s Overseas Program. A final request for Bill\u2019s transcripts came in March 1959 from the Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base<\/a> near Dayton, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last item in Bill\u2019s file in the PMSS Collections was a memo dated June 22, 1961, likely written by an office staff member to Burton Rogers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGeorge William Tye was here with his family, sorry to have missed you. He is now at the Univ. of Maryland…expects to be transferred to California. He asked about many people, most of whom I didn\u2019t know, but I gave him Mrs. (Alice Joy) Keith\u2019<\/a>s, Miss (Edith) Cold\u2019<\/a>s and Jim Bishop\u2019s California addresses. He talked to Brit (Wilder)<\/a>, and the family had a picnic lunch here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Evidently, Bill attended at least three of the PMSS Homecomings in the early 1980s. At the 1981 homecoming, he gave the Sunday morning talk in the Chapel. According to the Homecoming newsletter<\/a>, <\/em>\u201c[h]e spoke about Mental Hygiene and how we are in control by being realistic, choosing the best alternatives open to us and accepting responsibilities. He closed with a heartfelt tribute to the staff at Pine Mountain while he was a student.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For the 1983 newsletter<\/a>, he wrote a narrative about the 1983 homecoming, beginning with the statement: \u201cI had intended for this article to be witty and humorous, but it is hard to be humorous about something which carries such deep feelings as our relationship to Pine Mountain.\u201d He then described his observations at the 1983 homecoming, including the fun he and his fellow alumni had cleaning up the School House<\/a> during “work day” on the School campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1984 newsletter<\/a>, Mattie Ellen Hayes described the success of that year’s homecoming: \u201cEven Bill Tye\u2019s golf joke got funnier with each telling. I think he comes to keep us in good cheer anyway!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1986, \u201cDr. George W. Tye,\u201d then vice-president of the Alumni Association, was elected president of the organization. He was described in the Homecoming newsletter<\/a> as \u201cStill gorgeous too, a practicing psychiatrist after retirement from the military. Still the life of the party.\u201d (A letter that Bill submitted to the Ruth Shuler Dieter Appreciation Album<\/a> indicated that the name of his practice was Central Reality Therapy, located in Broadway, Illinois.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n George William Tye was born on July 19, 1929, in Youngs Creek, Whitley County, Kentucky, to George Earl Tye and Beulah Frances Tye. As of the 1940 U.S. Census, Bill had two younger sisters, Sylvia Rose Tye (Sadler), age 8, and Mildred (Micki?) Joyce Tye, age 6. A third sister, Virginia Ann, was born c. 1937. Beulah was born in Kentucky and George Earl in Oklahoma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n George Earl was listed in the 1940 Census as a mechanic in a car shop. Three years later, Bill’s student application indicated that his father was a coal inspector. Both parents had completed eight elementary school grades and the father ended his schooling after one year of high school. They were very much in favor of Bill’s desire to pursue of a college education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bill married Evelyn Pope (1924-1991) in 1947 and later, Irene S. Tye (1947-2009). He had several children, including Paula Denise Tye (1957-1979), Thomas, Deborah, and Leslie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n George William (\u201cBill\u201d) Tye died on October 20, 2008, in The Villages, Florida, at the age of 79. <\/p>\n\n\n\n See Also:<\/strong> GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Student Records<\/a><\/strong> – Password Protected. NOTE: Images of the full set of student records are considered private material and are not generally publicly displayed. Their access may be provided on request, pending approval of Pine Mountain Settlement School and the archivist of the PMSS Collections. Contact the main PMSS Office for information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE: The VIDEO HOLDINGS Guide<\/strong><\/a> lists videos of former PMSS staff, students, and events that reside in the PMSS Collections. George William Tye is featured in two of them: <\/p>\n Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n George William Tye<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Alt. Title<\/p>\n<\/td>\n G.W. Tye ; Bill Tye ; Billy Tye ; Billie Tye ; G. William Tye ; <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Identifier<\/p>\n<\/td>\nGEORGE WILLIAM TYE: After Pine Mountain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Student: PMSS Homecomings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
GEORGE WILLIAM TYE: Family Background<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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CONIFER 1945<\/a><\/strong> – Includes three poems by Bill Tye.
JOHN H. DEATON Unlicensed Dreamers<\/a><\/strong> – See “Deaton’s Dilemma,”
a narrative that features Bill Tye.
GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Correspondence 1943-1946<\/a>
GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Correspondence 1957-1961<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
#10 Grace Rood and Alumni Group 3 (Jack Martin, George “Billy” Tye, ?) 1987.
#13 George \u201cBilly\u201d Tye (1988?) – George Tye talks about his years at Pine Mountain during the Boarding School days and his assignment on various work crews. He discusses his relationship with various roommates and classmates and describes his life following graduation from Pine Mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Student<\/a><\/blockquote>