News

Four to be inducted into Education Hall of Fame

By Lightning Reports, Published: February 25, 2023

The Henderson County public school system's first public information officer, a longtime journalism mentor whose students won numerous awards for their yearbook and newspaper work, "the face" of Historic Johnson Farm for thousands of visitors and a veteran principal and administrator who currently serves on the School Board are this year’s inductees into the Education Hall of Fame, the Henderson County Education Foundation announced.

This year’s inductees, Patricia Allen, Brenda Walker Gorsuch, Ingrid McNair and Kathy Revis, will be honored during the Education Celebration Banquet Tuesday, April 25, at Jeter Mountain Farm. 

Since 2003, the Henderson County Education Foundation has inducted more than 140 teachers, administrators, support staff, school board members and donors into the Hall of Fame, one of only five education halls of fame in North Carolina.

This year’s inductees:

• Patricia Allen. The first Public Information Officer for Henderson County Public Schools, Allen served for 26 years in the school system. She was an assistant in the Fletcher Elementary office, media center and cafeteria from 1988 to 1993. Following the merger of the city and county school system, Allen served as a receptionist in the administrative offices of the School Board from 1993 until 1999 and was instrumental in designing a “Welcome to HCPS” packet for new teachers. From 1999 until her retirement in 2014, she served as public information officer where she designed numerous publications, advertisements and community outreach materials, wrote press releases and served as the liaison to local media. In retirement, Allen remains an active supporter of Historic Johnson Farm and is a volunteer with the Henderson County Education History Initiative.
• Brenda Walker Gorsuch. Gorsuch served as the English/Journalism teacher at West Henderson High School from 1983-2017. During that time, she was the faculty advisor to the school newspaper, Wingspan, and the Westwind yearbook adviser. She chaired the English Department from 2001-2017, was a senior sponsor from 1983-2017 and was the chief senior sponsor from 1993-2017. She served on the scholarship committee from 1988-2017 and was a sponsor of the Quill and Scroll Journalism Honor Society from 1983-2017. Throughout her tenure, both Wingspan and Westwind earned hundreds of awards from state, regional, and national scholastic media organizations, establishing West Henderson High School as one of the premier journalism programs in the nation. Under Gorsush’s leadership, nine student journalists earned the N.C Scholastic Media Association and N.C Press Foundation’s N.C. Student Journalist of the Year award, with two advancing to the national level. Throughout Gorsuch’s career, she received numerous adviser recognition awards from the Journalism Education Association (JEA) and the National Scholastic Press Association, including the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund High School Journalism National Teacher of the Year in 2004 and the JEA’s H. L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year in 2013 and recipient of the Medal of Merit Professional Service Award in 2015. In 2018, the JEA awarded her both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award, recognizing her service.
• Ingrid McNair: An administrative assistant and later farm coordinator, McNair was the face of Historic Johnson Farm for thousands of students from 1999-2014. She currently serves as a volunteer, board member and animal caretaker at the farm. Throughout her association with the farm, she came up with new hands-on activities to get students involved with the farm’s history. Visiting students tried their hands at making soap and sampling corn mush. In 2007, she suggested that the farm purchase a wagon so students could take rides while on field trips. When financial transportation issues hindered a school’s ability to visit the farm, McNair earned her bus driver’s license so she could transport students to and from the farm. She also was in charge of the maintenance of the ten historic buildings and 15 acres of grounds. In 2010, she proposed converting the farm granary to a replica schoolhouse so students did not have to cross the street to visit the Rugby School replica. She outfitted the building to look like a 1900 schoolhouse. Before her long service to Johnson Farm, McNair served as a teacher’s assistant at Bruce Drysdale Elementary School from 1980-1990.
• Kathy Revis: Dr. Revis served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction from 1998 - 2017, director of secondary and gifted education from 1997 - 1998, principal at West Henderson High School from 1993 - 1996, principal at Tuxedo Elementary School from 1992-1993, assistant principal at East Henderson High School from 1991-1992, and assistant principal at West Henderson High School from 1987-1991. As assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for nearly 19 years, Revis led the district to consistently score within the top eight districts in the state on all student performance indicators. She implemented a districtwide K-5 literacy framework and K-12 instructional framework that continues to this day. She placed a focus and expectation on principals monitoring student learning on a daily basis with an emphasis on instructional walk-throughs and providing formative feedback to teachers, led a collaborative team in designing and implementing the Henderson County Early College School and initiated preschool transition teams in every elementary school and helped start the Kindergarten Readiness Rally.

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Tickets to the Education Celebration Banquet may be purchased online at cefnc.org/events/educationcelebration. To make a financial contribution to HCEF honoring one of the 2023 inductees, visit hcefnc.org/2022hof