Deanie Boone Haskett

1904 - 1986

Deanie Boone Haskett
Image source: 1926 Tecoan, p. 171

Years before she became, in 1933, the first student at East Carolina Teachers College to earn a master’s degree, Deanie Boone Haskett served as the founding editor-in-chief of the school’s first student newspaper, the Teco Echo. Established in 1925 as a student-run and student-supported publication sponsored by the Student Government Association, the Teco Echo remained a vital source of campus and alumni news until the early 1950s when, following East Carolina’s elevation as a four-year liberal arts college, the student body responded with a new name for the still thriving student publication. The Teco Echo name was inextricably linked to the Teachers College era prompting ECC students to choose, via referendum, a new name for the paper, the East Carolinian. Despite the name change, the foundations in excellence in student journalism established by Haskett and her staff enabled the East Carolinian to meet the challenges facing a new college newspaper.

Haskett’s groundbreaking contributions as the paper’s first editor-in-chief easily established her place in East Carolina’s hall of fame. During Haskett’s editorship, not only did the Teco Echo gain a significant campus readership, its staff became members of the North Carolina Collegiate Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), giving the new paper prominence at the state and national levels early on. As editor-in-chief, Haskett was the first to represent the paper at the annual meeting of the CSPA. Apart from the Teco Echo, Haskett was active in campus clubs, including Phi Epsilon, a science club, Phi Sigma, a social organization, the Pitt County Club, and the Edgar Allen Poe Society. She also served as class treasurer her junior year.

Following graduation with a bachelor’s degree in 1926, Haskett took her first job as a high school teacher in Cedar Rock, Nash County, teaching English. A Greenville native, Haskett soon returned to ECTC to enter the school’s newly established graduate program. In the summer of 1933, Haskett became the first ECTC student to complete a master’s degree – hers was in English – with a thesis on North Carolina poets. During that time, she also served as president of the ECTC Alumnae Association. After completing her graduate degree, Haskett took a position at the Greenville High School, then located on the corner of Fifth and Reade Streets, just northwest of the main ECTC campus. She taught at the Greenville High School, and then, when it was renamed, Junius H. Rose High School, until her retirement in 1968.

While teaching at the Greenville High School, Haskett also served her alma mater as a critic teacher, joining the ECTC faculty shortly after completion of her master’s degree and remaining through the early 1940s. Haskett’s lifework exemplified the dedication to teaching that ECTC sought to cultivate in its students. In recognition of her lifelong contributions to excellence in learning, J. H. Rose High School subsequently named its chapter of the National Honor Society the Deanie Boone Haskett Chapter of the National Honor Society.

Sources

More from Digital Collections

1939 Tecoan, page 23
1939 Tecoan, page 23

Citation Information

Title: Deanie Boone Haskett

Author: John A. Tucker, PhD

Date of Publication: 7/11/2019

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