Meet Our Donors - Helen Sullivan Knight ‘31

At age 14, Helen Sullivan Knight '31 was one of the youngest students to attend Lyon College (then Arkansas College). But she found "warmth and acceptance" from her fellow classmates.

"College was a wonderful experience," the Poughkeepsie, Arkansas, native said in an interview shortly before her death in November 2002.

After retirement, Mrs. Knight resided in Evanston, Illinois, where she was an educator at Evanston schools and Northwestern University for many years.

Her love for Lyon College and her interest in education led her to establish an endowed scholarship through an estate gift in memory of her parents, Dr. Everett Lester and Jeffie Bacon Sullivan.

Helen originally planned to attend AC only two years, but she loved it so much she stayed and received her degree in English in 1931. She also developed a great interest in speech at AC and had a "wonderful teacher," Lois Ball, who also directed the Harlequin Theatre.

In her junior year, the Harlequin Theatre participated in a festival at Northwestern. The next year, Helen had the lead role in the play that was to compete. Unfortunately, Helen came down with a severe case of influenza and the play could not be entered in the festival.

However, Helen found her way back to Northwestern in 1933 while on the way to the World's Fair in Chicago. She soon found herself registered for graduate school at Northwestern and didn't get to the World's Fair for a month. She eventually received her master's degree and became an instructor in speech.

During World War II she was invited to join the faculty at Evanston Township High School. She taught there from 1942 to 1973. She established a speech pathology clinic at the school that became a model program. She later returned to Northwestern as a visiting professor.

She had a wonderful career and, she says, "it all started at Arkansas College."