Educator’s legacy of teaching excellence endures

Published Mar 28, 2024 by

Patricia Earnhardt Tyndall

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Faye Creegan ’65 was known as master teacher, both in skill and impact. The East Carolina University College of Education graduate became a renowned Pitt County educator whose lessons and legacy have endured beyond a tragedy that took her life.

Former students recall her classes with a fondness that has not faded in 40 years. Creegan taught history and civics at what was E.B. Aycock Jr. High School. Ninth graders would linger outside her classroom to listen to her teaching an eighth grade history course. She was “that good,” one former student shared in a social media post.

Creegan’s teaching skill influenced her students to become teachers. Others describe her classes as life-changing and the place they learned to think about history and understand their role as citizens.

In a New & Observer article, ECU history professor, the late Dr. Betty C. Congleton, said Creegan “had something that was very, very special.” Congleton led a 17-member committee to create the Faye Marie Creegan Scholarship Endowment Fund to provide a scholarship at ECU to mark Creegan’s achievements and her legacy.Creegan was one of 60 people killed during the night of March 28, 1984, when a series of violent tornadoes cut a swath across North and South Carolina. Creegan’s home near Portertown Road was one of thousands destroyed along the 337 miles of destruction. Of the 22 tornadoes, seven were rated as F4 and five were F3.

President Ronald Reagan declared April 1, 1984, as a national day of mourning for the tornado victims.

News that Creegan was missing after the storm spread quickly at Aycock and across Greenville. Students and school staff sat in her classroom anxiously awaiting news. By midday on March 29, authorities confirmed that her body was found near her home. Creegan and eight others in Pitt County were killed.

The 1984 E.B. Aycock yearbook was dedicated to ECU alumna Faye Creegan. (Contributed photo)

Questions regarding her death will go unanswered. Creegan was a decorated equestrian and horse breeder and had horses in a barn close to her home. Some think she had gone to check on her horses at the time the tornado struck. Others believe she stayed in her home at the urging of friends, who believed she would be safer there than in the barn.

Teaching legacy

Memories of Creegan’s gifts as a teacher have sustained learners and teachers beyond the loss and the Faye Marie Creegan Scholarship continues to build on her legacy of teaching excellence.

The scholarship was created to assist deserving students who are preparing for certification in the teaching of social studies in the middle and/or secondary grades. The College of Education awards the scholarship annually and more than 35 ECU students have earned a Creegran scholarship during their senior year. More than $42,000 has been distributed from the fund.

Lisa Wheeler ’96 received the inaugural Creegan scholarship. Though she never met Creegan or knew her story, Wheeler has fulfilled the vision inspired by Creegan’s teaching excellence.

“I love teaching social studies,” Wheeler said. “I have spent most of my career teaching civics and economics. I have always believed that civics was one of the most important courses a student will take in high school.”

Colleagues describe her as being passionate about teaching. This year, Wheeler was selected the 2024-2025 Hunt High School Teacher of the Year in Wilson and is one of 10 semi-finalists for the County Teacher of the Year.

Wheeler’s first job was as a sixth-grade social studies and communication skills at Speight Middle School in Wilson. She taught at Fike High School for four years and is now at Hunt High School in her 27th year of teaching.

Wheeler said civics teaches students about the United States constitution and government. “It emphasizes their rights and how our political system works,” Wheeler said. “Having a solid understanding of our constitution and government is vital to the future of our country.”

Wheeler has had the opportunity to teach almost every social studies course in her career, including current events, world history, U.S. history, civics and economics, personal finance, and AP psychology. She serves on the Hunt faculty leadership team and as co-chair for the social studies department. Last year, she created the school’s TET (Teachers Encouraging Teachers) team.

“Our team works to do monthly things for our staff to help improve the overall moral within our building,” Wheeler said. “The impact has been amazing.”

Creegan’s legacy also continued in classrooms in Pitt County and beyond through educators who were her student teachers.

Susan Matthews Pearce ’84 ’90 was student teaching in Creegan’s classroom in 1984. She remembers the sadness and loss of March 28th, but immediately recalls the positive influence Creegan had on her throughout her teaching career.

“She had a tremendous impact on me,” Pearce said. “I still had materials that I used in my classroom until the day I retired. She was having an impact on my classes (30 years later) through the lesson plans and tools she had at Aycock.”

Pearce taught history in Pitt County Schools for 30 years. In 2010, she was Pitt County Schools’ Teacher of the Year.