Mattie McCullough was a resident of Red Deer for fifty-four years. She was born in 1909, one of seven children in a farming family from Fort McLeod, Alberta. She attended a rural school and, being academically inclined, advanced to grade eight by the age of ten, a rather daunting experience for a timid little girl. After completing grade eleven, she attended Normal School, and received her teaching certificate at seventeen years of age. She taught for two and one-half years before her marriage to Ronald V. McCullough, a Normal School student who became a school principal and later a school superintendent. They had three children – one girl, Donna, and two boys, Ronald and Robert. She shared with her husband an interest in agriculture, specifically Aberdeen Angus cattle, and it became a lifelong and cherished hobby.  Her husband also encouraged her to complete her grade twelve, which she did at age thirty-five.

Her active involvement in education was a contribution of keen interest and love for over fifty years. She was president of the Alberta Federation of Home and School Associations from 1959 to 1961, and was its ambassador throughout Alberta and Canada. This association, among many things, helped to develop and foster the first libraries in Alberta schools. She, as part of the organization, also advocated for curriculum articulation between high schools and post-secondary institutions. She was vice-president of the Canadian Home and School Association from 1963 to 1964, and later received a life membership in both the Alberta and Canadian Home and School Associations. In 1964 she was an invited guest to a conference on the family, sponsored by Governor General and Mrs. Vanier, and was a founding member of the Vanier Institute on the Family.

Besides the Home and School Associations, she was also president of councils and organizations such as the Alberta Education Council, Library Board, and the Alberta Angus Auxiliary. She was a member of the Board of Governors for the University of Alberta, the Provincial Council Banff School of Fine Arts, the Board of Governors for Red Deer College, and was program chairman of the University of Alberta Senate.

Some of her awards include:

•The Centennial Medal in 1967

•A Government of Alberta Achievement Service Award in 1976

•The Canadian Association of Exhibitions - Distinguished Service Award in 1980

•A Member of the Order of Canada in 1980

•An Honorary Member of Delta Kappa Gamma International, Zeta Chi in 1981

•An Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta in 1983

•The Alberta Teachers’ Association School Administrators’ Award for “distinguished service to education through leadership as a citizen”

As a grandmother, she became computer-literate, and still enrolled in university courses at age eighty-six years. She was always ready with a smile and encouraging word to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, who are proud of the legacy she left to them.

The Board of Trustees for Red Deer Public Schools is delighted to recognize this passion for education and learning by naming our new elementary school located in the Lancaster area of south-east Red Deer as … Mattie McCullough Elementary School