1925 Biography - Clarence A. Ives

Clarence Albert Ives, B. S., M. A. An important double assignment is that given to Professor Ives in connection with the affairs of the University of Louisiana at Baton Rouge, where he holds the chair of education and is Dean of the Teachers College. This mark of precedence has been worthily attained, for Professor Ives has a record of large and constructive achievement in connection with educational work in his native state.

Professor Ives was born at Vernon, Jackson Parish, Louisiana, July 17, 1869, and in his chosen profession he is admirably upholding the prestige of the family name, his father, the late Prof. Christopher Ives, having likewise become prominent in constructive educational work in Louisiana, as well as in other states of the Union.

Prof. Christopher Ives was born in Schenectady, New York, in the year l821, and his death occurred at Ruston, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, in 1892. In his native city he was graduated from Union College as a member of the class of 1842 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For two years thereafter he was engaged in teaching in various schools along the New York shore of Lake Ontario, and for the ensuing seven years he was a teacher in the State of Georgia. In 1832 he established his residence at Vienna, in the present Lincoln Parish of Louisiana, where he served as principal of schools, as did he later at Catahoula and Jackson. He served many years as treasurer of Jackson Parish, and was the superintendent of the public schools of that parish from the time they were established until he removed thence to Ruston, Lincoln Parish. A stalwart advocate of the principles of the democratic party, he served as a member of the Louisiana State Constitutional Convention of 1879, besides which he represented Jackson Parish in the Louisiana Legislature in the period of 1880-84. He and his wife were most zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mrs. Ives, whose maiden name was Martha Meade Bonner, was born at Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1828, and she survived her husband many years, her death having occurred in 1912 at Orange, Texas. Of the children the eldest is Christopher Edwin, who is a teacher in the high school at Martin, Louisiana; E. Rosalie maintains her home at Columbia, South Carolina; Julia is the wife of John Cottle, of Orange, Texas, and in their home her widowed mother passed the closing period of her gentle and gracious life: Albert and Lonnie died in childhood; Mittie died at the age of twenty-five, and Genevra at the age of twenty years; Eugene was twenty-two years of age at the time of his death; Clarence A., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Bertha is the wife of George Oliver, of Birmingham, Alabama.

Prof. Clarence A. Ives attended private schools at Vernon and Ruston, and in advancing his education he entered the Louisiana State University, in which he completed the Latin and scientific course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1893. He received at this time his degree of Bachelor of Science, and in 1923 his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. In the year of his graduation he became principal of the high school at Shiloh, this state, where he remained one year. During the following year he acted as substitute for Prof. T. W. Atkinson in the preparatory department of the University of Louisiana, and the next year marked his service as assistant principal of the Ouachita Parish High School at Monroe. Thereafter he gave three years of characteristically effective administration as principal of the high school at Patterson, and the ensuing seven years found him the incumbent of a similar position in the high school at Franklin. His services were demanded during the next six years in the position of principal of the high school at Minden. From 1912 to 1923 he was a member of the State Department of Education, and during two years of this interval he was state conductor of teachers' institutes, his service during the other nine years having been in the capacity of state high school inspector. He has maintained his residence at Baton Rouge since 1912, and since 1923 has been professor of education and dean of the Teachers' College at the University of Louisiana, where his offices are in the Peabody Building. He is an influential member of the Louisiana State Teacher's Association, of which he was president in 1906, besides which he gave many years of service as a member of its executive committee and also submitted to the association a new constitution. In 1915 Professor Ives organized the Louisiana Council of Education, of which he was the chairman two years. He is a member of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, in which he was in 1921 and 1922 chairman of the committee on accredited schools and is vice president of the association. He is a member also of the National Education Association, and was vice president of the National Association of High School Inspectors in 1922-1923, besides being affiliated with the Phi Delta Kappa, an honorary educational fraternity.

Professor Ives is a democrat, and he and his wife are zealous members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Baton Rouge, in which he is serving as a steward. He is affiliated with Capital Lodge No. 399, A. F. and A. M., at Baton Rouge; Minden Chapter No. 55, R. A. M., at Minden, and in the Scottish Rite Consistory at New Orleans he has received the thirty-second degree. He is an active member of the Baton Rouge Kiwanis Club and lieutenant governor of the Louisiana-Mississippi Kiwanis District. He is a director of the Baton Rouge Building and Loan Association.

In the World war period Professor Ives was instant in patriotic service, served on various committees in charge of local war activities, and delivered speeches in the furtherance of such patriotic service in various sections of the state.

July 19, 1898, recorded the marriage of Professor Ives and Miss Jessie Bond, daughter of the late Joseph Bond, who was a merchant and planter at Ruston. Joseph Bond died in Ruston in January, 1920, and his wife died in Morgan City, Louisiana, in November, 1921. Mrs. Ives is a graduate of the Louisiana State Normal College at Natchitoches, and prior to her marriage had given about six years of effective service as a teacher in the schools of Louisiana. Clarence Albert, Jr., the only child of Professor and Mrs. Ives, was born August 2, 1899. In 1922 he was graduated from the University of Louisiana, where he completed the engineering course and received the degree of Bachelor of Science. He was a member of the Students' Army Training Corps at the university during the Period of American participation in the World war. He resides in Baton Rouge and holds an engineering position with the State Highway Commission. He was married August 2, 1922, to Miss Nora Iles, of Alexandria, Louisiana, and to them a son was born May 30, 1924.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 71-72.