Members of the sixth class of the Louie B. Nunn Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame have been announced—and all three inductees have strong connections to the listening area of WKU Public Radio. The Teacher Hall of Fame was established in 2000, and is housed on the campus of Western Kentucky University.
Here's information on the three women who will be inducted next February:
Eloise Hadden
A native of Raywood, Texas, Eloise W. Hadden taught Home Economics for 33 years in Logan and Simpson counties.
She taught at Auburn High School from 1954 to 1982, Logan County High School from 1982 to 1985, Logan County High School Homebound Teacher from 1985 to 1987, and Martha Layne Collins Pilot Project Career Ladder in Franklin in 1987. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1956 from WKU.
Hadden, known as “Mrs. Auburn” for work in the Logan County community, wrote grants to start the Auburn Historical Society and Auburn Museum and led the effort to get 136 homes and buildings in Auburn listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She has served on the Auburn City Council and the Logan County Tourism Commission.
Her numerous awards and honors include Logan County’s “Teacher of The Year” and first-runner up in the state competition in 1980, recipient of the 1995 Jefferson Award given by WBKO-TV and Daily News for public service and volunteer work in South Central Kentucky and WBKO’s “Hometown Hero” in 1999 for work with Auburn Library and Museum. Hadden has received several awards from WKU’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Anne Padilla
A native of New York, Anne Hardie Padilla has taught English and Composition for 50 years, including the past 27 years at Bowling Green High School.
Padilla taught at Port Richmond High School in Staten Island, N.Y., from 1962 to 1965, North Chicago (Ill.) Community High School from 1966 to 1967, Villa Grove (Ill.) High School from 1968 to 1969, Jefferson Junior High School in Champaign, Ill., from 1969 to 1970, Western Kentucky University from 1976 to 1985 and Bowling Green High School since 1985.
She received her bachelor’s degree in 1962 from Hunter College in New York City, master’s degree in 1966 from University of Illinois and completed her Ed.S. in Secondary Education at WKU in 1987, with a concentration in Applied Linguistics/ESL.
Her awards include Bowling Green Teacher of the Year in 1976, nominee for DisneyHand Teacher Award (Creativity in Teaching) in 2004 and University of Chicago Outstanding Teacher Award in 1995. In 1992, Padilla was part of the original group trained in implementation of Kentucky Educational Reform Act. She has served as a consultant for Advance Kentucky’s AP English Literature and Composition program and has participated in the WKU Writing Project.
Juanita Park
A native of Louisville, Juanita Kennedy Park began her teaching career in 1944 in Ohio County and continued to work with student teachers at WKU until 2012.
Park spent the first 20 years of her 67-year teaching career at Rockport Elementary and High School teaching first through eighth grade from 1944 to 1965. In 1965 she taught first-graders at Western Kentucky State College’s Training School. Park’s career continued in 1966 at WKU’s Jones-Jaggers Laboratory School and then in WKU’s Teacher Education program where she supervised student teachers and conducted student teaching seminars until retiring earlier this year.
She attended WKU where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a master’s degree in 1959.
Park served as president of the Kentucky Association of Classroom Teachers in the mid-1960s and received several awards for her service with the Kentucky Education Association.
Other awards include the Kentucky Association of Teacher Educators (KATE) Presidential Award in 1988, Kentucky Federation of Business and Professional Woman’s Club “Young Careerist” Service Award in 1981, Kentucky Federation of Business and Professional Woman’s Club President’s Decathlon Award in 1980 and Kentucky Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (KASCD) President Unit Award in 1978.
