By JENNIFER MOONSONG
Glasgow News 1
This August it has been a year since former Barren County coach and teacher Jerry Harvey left the world behind, but his legacy remains. For some, teaching is a job. For others it is a lifelong career, and for a few, it is a calling. For Mr. Harvey, it was a calling.
Long before he walked the halls of Temple Hill School, commanding respect and inspiring young minds in the classroom, Harvey was drafted and went to fight in Vietnam. It was 1968, and he had just stated his teaching career in Meade County when he was called to serve his county.
As a soldier he was a squad leader, and Sergeant in the U.S. Army Infantry, “Big Red One.” His training and discipline carried through into his teaching when he returned to the States, in everything from the way he spoke to get students’ attention to the way he walked. Your experience with Mr. Harvey was entirely up to you, built on the cornerstone of mutual respect.
A handful students loathed him because he wad a symbol of authority. He strove extra hard to mold those few. Many students will remember Harvey as one of their favorite teachers, whose passion for the subjects he taught was infectious, whether that be baseball or history.
He began teaching at Temple Hill in 1970. Beginning in 1974 he taught seventh, eighth, and ninth grade social studies. He also coached basketball, football, and baseball at Temple Hill School with fellow coach, friend and PE teacher Bud Tarry. After Temple Hill, he taught history at Barren County Middle School beginning in 1995 when the school opened. As an All-American mined fellow who loved old westerns, farm life, horses and the past, his favorite thing to teach was American History. He taught for 29 and a half years, and resumed as a substitute for another decade.
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