Original Lit Crit State Director Dies at 82
By Jamie Oberg, UIL Intern | Wednesday, May 14, 2014 12:37 PM
Dr. Fred Tarpley was the first state director for the Literary Criticism Contest.
Dr. Fred Tarpley, the first state Literary Criticism Contest director and driving force behind the contest, passed away on March 1 at the age of 82.
Tarpley graduated from high school at 16, received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M- Commerce) and a Ph. D. from Lousiana State University in 1960. He was a professor at Texas A&M, Commerce from 1957 until his retirement in 1992 and was named Professor Emeritus of Literature and Languages in 2004.
In the early 1980s, Tarpley “instigated the Literary Criticism contest and provided an opportunity that students had not had before,” said Treva Dayton, former UIL Academic Director. “The literary criticism contest is the perfect example of his constant willingness to give.”
In a 2006 Leaguer article, Tarpley talked about the beginning of the Lit Crit contest.
“I was the executive director of the Texas Council of Teachers of English,” Tarpley said. “The executive board instructed me to write UIL something about Ready Writing. And I added a paragraph and I said, ‘It has occurred to me that since English, for so many students, is the study of literature, I think you should add a competition in literary criticism.’”
Tarpley didn’t know who the UIL academic director was when he wrote his letter, but as luck would have it, the director was Janet Wiman, “one of my favorite former students.”
“Janet said, ‘Great idea, we’ll take care of the recommendation on Ready Writing, but would you be willing to pilot the Literary Criticism contest?,’” he said.
Tarpley agreed and said it was the beginning of a great adventure. For three years, the contest was piloted and operated only at the regional level for 3A schools meeting on the college campus at Commerce.
“After the third year of piloting, we petitioned to become a state contest, and we’ve been a state contest ever since,” he said in 2006.
Tarpley served as the contest director for 25 years, retiring in 2008. In that 2006 article, he said working at UIL was one of the most rewarding things in his life.
“It’s just rewarding to be surrounded by the finest literature students in the state of Texas in a single year at the state contest, and also to be involved with their teachers,” he continued. “Oprah Winfrey can boast about Oprah’s Book Club. Our reading list is older than Oprah’s Book Club! Every year, we choose three authors for the reading list, and that means throughout the state of Texas, there’s this cohesion of students reading the same author at the same time. And that must be something — that’s rewarding.
Former Academic Director Bobby Hawthorne who worked with Tarpley for more than two decades described him as “elegant and intellectual but not the least bit effete or snobbish.
“He enjoyed a good chicken fried steak and a long drive through rural Texas toward a Student Activities Conference,” Hawthorne said. “He was as decent and generous with his time and talent as anyone I worked with in my 30 years at the UIL.”
As director of the Lit Crit Contest, Tarpley selected the literature for the contest reading list after consulting with various other authorities in the state.
In 2000, Dr. Tarpley selected the New York Times best seller Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as the novel for the following year’s contest. This selection elicited outrage from parents and coaches concerned about the appropriateness of the novel, but Dr. Tarpley stood by his pick.
“Through it all, Fred kept his composure, his sense of humor and his integrity,” Hawthorne said. “Asked to explain the selection, [Dr. Tarpley] said, ‘I thought, 'Harry Potter is getting a lot of attention. It has the potential to be a classic, so for once, why don’t we choose something not written by a dead person?'’”
Hawthorne said Tarpley’s defense of the book was brilliant — a thorough analysis of Rowling's use of mythology, folktales, fairy tales, Biblical references and Magical Realism.
“It didn't hurt that few, if any, of his critics had read the book,” he said. “At any rate, who would have guessed that Dr. Fred Tarpley would have been such a bad boy?”
During his lifetime, Tarpley wrote more than 15 works, including scripts, articles, and books about the names, people and places in Texas. His most influential works include "From Blinky to Blue John: A World Atlas of Northeast Texas, "10001 Texas Place Names," and "Jefferson: Riverport to the Southwest."
The Leonard native and graduate of Hooks High School said his parents were supportive of him and insistent that he get an education. When he arrived at East Texas State Teachers College, he began a "life-altering adventure."
Dayton said Tarpley will be “dearly, dearly missed.”
“He has done so many things to further education of students,” Dayton said.