by Rachel Coleman
Kathryn Papa Melzer has teaching in her DNA. Her great-great-great-great-grandfather was Orson Spencer, first Chancellor of the University of Deseret, which later became University of Utah. Orson’s daughter Aurelia Spencer Rogers was prompted to start an organization for the children in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She helped organize the Primary in Farmington, Utah. Kathryn heard many stories about Aurelia at home and at church. They gave her a deep sense of belonging, knowing she was connected to someone who was important and inspired and who left her a great legacy. She figured if she was Aurelia’s granddaughter, she must be important, too.
Kathryn loves this saying of Aurelia’s: “Our children are our jewels, we have counted well the cost; May their angels ever guard them, and not one child be lost.”
Aurelia's great-granddaughter Beatrice Rogers Papa was Kathryn’s grandmother and a beloved teacher. She taught many years in northern Arizona, including 13 years on the Navajo Indian Reservation. She died when Kathryn was around 10, but Kathryn remembers seeing pictures of her surrounded by her Navajo grade schoolers. From these pictures, Kathryn sensed that teachers were honored and special.
When Kathryn’s grandfather was dying, he told Kathryn’s dad, Donald Rogers Papa, to get his education. Donald packed up and hitchhiked his way to Eastern Arizona University where he began his college education. Donald continued the legacy of teaching and received his teaching degree from Arizona State University.
Donald taught junior high for many years. He later followed in his mother's footsteps by teaching elementary school at a nearby Indian reservation: Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. Here Donald taught a sixth grader who would later have a son who Kathryn adopted. As Kathryn sat in a hospital waiting room meeting the birth parents of her son, she discovered her son's birth father knew and loved Mr. Papa. Kathryn knew the hand of God was in the details of their lives, preparing paths years before they were traveled.
Kathryn’s maternal grandmother, Pearl Clement Nichols, now age 91, is an example to Kathryn of what it means to look after our jewels. She lived close by, and Kathryn’s siblings and cousins spent a lot of time with her and at her home. She taught third grade at Whittier Elementary for nearly three decades. As a child, Kathryn loved playing with the extra teaching supplies her grandmother brought home. Kathryn’s cousins and siblings often played school, grading fake papers with big red markers. Kathryn helped her as a child in her classroom in the summer. Kathryn’s love of sharpening pencils, holding warm papers fresh out of the copier, writing on the chalkboard, and smelling new books started young. She knew she wanted her own classroom to decorate and arrange, and she wanted to plan and prepare for the children she would teach. For every dress-like-your-future-career day and get-to-know-you questionnaire when she was a child, Kathryn chose to be a teacher.
Teaching has been a family affair on both sides of Kathryn’s family for a long time—her 4th great-grandfather, her grandmothers, and her father. Her mother never finished her college degree, but she worked at Kathryn’s elementary school while Kathryn attended there. Two of Kathryn’s sisters, a brother, and a sister-in-law are also teachers.
Kathryn felt empowered to know she had a talent that had been passed down from generation to generation. She often commiserated with Grandma Pearl about frustrating days. When she reads journals and poems and looks at pictures of other ancestors, she feels deeply connected to their experiences and feelings. When Kathryn was an elementary school teacher, her family helped grade papers, bring supplies to school if she forgot them, and rub her swollen feet after a long day of teaching while pregnant with twins. After her twins were born, Kathryn used her experience and heritage to run a preschool in her home, teach children at church, and homeschool her children. She was also mindful of nurturing and educating children always, not just in the classroom. Kathryn affirms with her ancestor Aurelia, “Our children are our jewels.”
Your ancestors may have been shoemakers, sailors, coal miners, seamstresses, or so much more! Find out how you can learn about your ancestors' occupations through census records and other sources.
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