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Melvin Martin Harper was born in Collin County on Jan. 1, 1903. He graduated from Wylie High School and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from East Texas State University. Records show his career spanned some 45 years until he retired at the end of the 1970-71 school year. With that tenure, his teaching career started in 1926 when Collin County had many one-room schoolhouses.

Also in 1926, Mr. Harper married Delzie Douglas, who was born in the Clear Lake community of Collin County in 1906.

Mr. Harper’s first appearance with the Princeton ISD faculty is in the 1951-52 yearbook. Sometime in the previous 26 years before he joined the faculty in Princeton, he served as principal of the Culleoka school before it consolidated into the Princeton school system.

Mr. Harper’s early years in PISD included classroom teaching assignments on the junior high level in math, science, biology and social studies, along with some class sponsorships at the high school level. He served in these various capacities until the late 1950s when he was appointed elementary principal when the former principal left PISD for a position in another district.

The Harpers were members of the First Baptist Church in Princeton, and Mr. Harper was a member of the McKinney and Princeton Masonic lodges.

Mr. Harper’s 45 years as an educator serves as evidence of his dedication to students and his desire to mold them into good citizens for the future. In retirement, Mr. Harper served as one of the first presidents of the National Retired Teachers Association.