In the early years of The HSUS, humane education, while recognized as important, was not a priority for the resource-strapped HSUS. Only in the mid-1960s could the organization afford to produce instructional materials for young people.
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| Charlotte Baker Montgomery, accepting an award from The HSUS. © The HSUS |
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In addition to staff member Dale Hylton and HSUS friends Aida Flemming and Hope Sawyer Buyukmihci, the task of developing humane education materials for The HSUS fell to Charlotte Baker Montgomery, a children’s author and resident of Nacogdoches, Texas.
Montgomery, the 1983 winner of the Joseph Wood Krutch Medal, The HSUS’s highest honor, passed away in late April 2009 in Nacogdoches at age 98. She was the author of 16 books for children.
An Outstanding Leader in Humane Education
As a founder of the Humane Society of Nacogdoches County in 1959, Montgomery was active in humane education work in her community throughout the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, working with Hylton, Charles Hermann, Kathy Savesky, Dorothy Weller, and other HSUS staffers, Montgomery infused her private passion for humane education into a number of works written for the HSUS youth division, at that time called the National Association for the Advancement of Humane Education (NAHEE).
Montgomery authored A Visit to a Humane Society Animal Shelter, Meeting Animal Friends, and (with Hope Sawyer Buyukmihci) My Kindness Coloring Book, as well as many articles and notices for HSUS publications like Humane Education and KIND. In addition, she wrote humane education content for a wide array of general publications. During the 1990s and until her death she was active in promoting humane issues.
Background
Montgomery attended Stephen F. Austin University, Mills College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where she received a master’s degree. An accomplished artist, her sketches depicting scenes she witnessed during the East Texas oil boom of the late 1930s were featured in a public exhibition at the Museum of East Texas in Lufkin.
Having worked as a teacher and arts administrator for many years, Montgomery became a full-time writer-illustrator in 1950, and turned her attention increasingly to the protection of animals, birds, and nature. Many of her books focused on animals and young people trying to help them. In recognition of her efforts to strengthen humane work in East Texas, she received the 1961 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Dallas Society for Animal Protection.
Fostering Generations of Humane Educators
Working with Professor Grady Willingham and a number of HSUS staff members, Montgomery launched the Humane Education Workshop, a summer seminar held annually at Stephen F. Austin State University for many years, which is believed to be the first accredited course in humane education in the United States. She not only participated as a speaker, but provided generous sponsorships for scholarship students and speakers. This summer institute continues today in the form of an online course offered year round at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In the mid 1980s she established the Roger Montgomery Professorship in Humane and Environmental Education at Stephen F. Austin State University. In addition, she supported a school Willingham helped to found, where the curriculum was centered around the humane ethic.
Montgomery also donated and paid for the distribution of hundreds of humane education books through The HSUS and the International Kindness Club. For many years, she wrote an animal column, “Noah’s Notebook,” for daily papers throughout East Texas. A conservationist, Montgomery donated a 16-acre conservation easement for the Banita Creek Nature Preserve to the Texas Land Conservatory. During the 1990s and until her death she remained active in promoting humane issues.
"Charlotte was not only an inspiration to many of us entering humane education in the 1970s and 1980s, she was also a personal cheerleader," notes Kathy Savesky, who directed NAHEE in those years. “She was always eager to hear of new initiatives, publications, etc., and would send little notes of support, encouragement … and occasionally a gentle push to do more!”
