Carl H. Skinner is superintendent of the city schools of Nortonville. He had been engaged in school work since before he attained his majority, and is one of the school men who are thoroughly in love with their calling and profession. Mr. Skinner possesses that fundamental requisite of a good teacher–a love for and understanding of young people. That is worth more than a bundle of academic degrees. But he also possesses in addition the technical skill and the experience which enable him to guide and administer a school system.
A native of Kansas, Mr. Skinner was born at Burden in Cowley County, January 16, 1889. His father, James E. Skinner, was born in Illinois, in 1854, and his family removed to Neosho County, Kansas, in 1866, locating near where the City of Erle now stands. He became a farmer there and subsequently removed to Cowley County, where he was successfully engaged in agriculture until his death at Burden in 1908. Politically he was a republican. James E. Skinner married Mary M. Fowler, who was born in Illinois in 1861. She is now living at Nortonville and owned the homestead of 160 acres in Cowley County. Their children are: Earl, who died at Burden, Kansas, where he was a farmer, at the age of thirty-one; Pearl, wife of W. J. Bowman, a farmer at Burden; Verlin, who was a young farmer and died at Burden at the age of twenty-three; Carl H.; and Blaine, who is a cowboy on a ranch at Douglas, Wyoming.
Carl H. Skinner grew up on his father’s farm in Cowley County, attended the rural schools, and in 1905 graduated from the Burden High School. He then taught in a country district of Cowley County for two years. The next two years he spent in the State Normal School at Emporia, and after that continued attending during summer sessions for several years. On leaving the State Normal he resumed teaching in the country schools of Cowley County for one year, and going to Jackson County was principal at Circleville one year, superintendent at Bluff City in Harper County, two years, and following that he took a course of one year at the State Normal, where he was graduated in 1914 with a life teacher’s certificate and the degree Bachelor of Arts.
Mr. Skinner then became superintendent of schools at Fairview for two years, and in the fall of 1916 took charge of the Nortonville schools. He had under his supervision nine grade teachers and an enrollment of 200 scholars. Almost any day in the week Mr. Skinner may be seen on the streets of Nortonville and at the schoolhouse surrounded by his pupils, all of whom are most happy and proud to be with him. He is unmarried. Mr. Skinner is superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday School and an active member of that church and in politics is a republican.
