Virginia Uldrick

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Virginia Uldrick
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Major Accomplishments

• Founding Principal of the Fine Arts Center
• Artistic and choral director for the Singing
  Christmas Tree for Twenty Years, even having it
  perform with the Alanta Symphony Chorus

• Founding Director and first President of the
  South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and
  Humanities

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Other achievements, awards, and positions

• First female member of the Rotary club
• Supervisor of Music for elementary and junior
  high schools of Greenwood, SC
• Performed with the Chautauqua Opera Company and
  the South Carolina Opera Workshop
• Music Director of the Greenville Little Theater
  for four years

• Director of the Roper Mountain Science Center
• Her superiors had her go to a naval institute in
  Washington, DC, to ask for a 26- inch refractor
  telescope.
• Numerous awards, including
• Lifetime Achievement Award
• Elizabeth ONeill Verner Governors Award
• Order of the Palmetto
• Distinguished Alumna Award

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Education
Graduated from Greenville High in 1946
Influenced by her teachers--especially her
drama and chorale teachers, who inspired her to
continue and follow her dreams
Graduated from Furman in 1950 with a Bachelor
of Arts in
Music Performance and Education
Received Master of Arts in Music/Arts
Administration from The
University of South Carolina (1968)
Holds two Honorary doctorates Columbia
College (1983), Musical Arts Furman University
(1984), Doctorate of Humanities
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Family Information

• Daughter of Virginia Campbell Short and William
  Short
• Married Marion B. Uldrick (now deceased)
• Two children, Stephen Michael Uldrick (now
  deceased) and Lisa Uldrick
• Two grandchildren, Scott and Nicole Parris

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Interview
Press for interview with Virginia Uldrick. It is
27 minutes long.
Q What is your fondest or best memory of
Greenville High?
A Greenville High School has provided me with
so many memories that one would
really build on the next. I was deeply
inspired by the choral teacher, Francis Lynch,
and each one of my teachers in the academics
inspired me to reach for the best that I had
within me. So that was a highlight as a student,
and then some of the things that happened to me
in my classes here really helped me to focus more
on my college work. I had an excellent education
in Greenville High School.
Q What was your plan, goal or dream while you
were a student at Greenville High?
A I wanted to be an opera singer. And I suppose
I was inspired by this teacher at Greenville High
that planted the seed. In college I was inspired
by all of my teachers, academic and art, but I
think those people in music and drama were the
ones that helped me to decide what I wanted to do
in my future with hardly the highest expectation
that I would ever fully realize my dreams. Then
as I moved along I had the wonderful opportunity
to study with the best people in the world in
choral music. I did get a music degree.
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Interview, continued
Q What do you think is the highlight of your
career or life?
A I'm saying all of these things to help you
understand there is no one place that I can say,
This is it. Eveything was a progressive and
inspiring and extrodinary moment in my life. I
don't know how it happened. I just know that I
had a lot of ambition. I wanted to learn how to
teach and satisfy the needs of young people with
talent because they were not given the education
they needed at the time.
Q Who has been your greatest mentor? Who has
influenced you the most?
A I was deeply inspired by Robert McClain, who
was the drama teacher. I was deeply inspired by
the choral teacher, Francis Lynch, and each one
of my teachers in the academics inspired me to
reach for the best that I had within me. I think
M. T. Anderson deeply inspired me, my high school
principal and my first superintendent as a
teacher when I came back to Greenville. My
students inspired me to want to find out how
students learn better, what they need to know and
do. Richard Riley was governor at that time. He
established through executive order the
Governor's School summer program. That program
was so successful that he said to me, Virginia
you must take the students to the mountaintop,
and when they go there, they will never look
back they'll want to keep soaring. And you must
partner with people who cannot afford to really
duplicate services. So be careful how you plan
to develop your programs.
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Sources

• A Current Resolution. May 16, 2001. South
  Carolina Department of State (2001).
• www.scstatehouse.net/sess114_2001-2002/bills/686
  .doc
• Uldrick, Virginia. Personal Interview. May 20,
  2008.
• Virginia Uldrick Plaque. Greenville High Wall of
  Fame Gallery. Greenville High School. Greenville,
  South Carolina.

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People involved in creation
of this presentation

• Amber- Interview and information gathering
• Alessandra- Pooled the information into the
  Powerpoint