Shipley named to Educator Hall of Fame
Public speaking is recognized as one of the most common fears. Linda Shipley spent most of her career not only helping students overcome this fear but helping them excel at the activity.
As the speech and debate teacher at the Mid-High and Bartlesville High School, Shipley’s ability to connect with her students and help them reach their full potential — oftentimes on the national stage — led to her being selected as one of four retired Bartlesville Public Schools educators to be inducted into the Bartlesville Public Schools Foundation’s Educator Hall of Fame this spring.
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Shipley moved to Oklahoma as a young child. She was introduced to speech classes while at Moore High School. She characterized herself as a shy kid who “did not even want to pick up the phone to order a pizza.” But her high school speech teacher was also her neighbor and convinced her parents to put Linda in speech and debate classes. Although she did not enjoy them when she started in ninth grade, by her junior year she had developed a love for debating. In her senior year, she recognized that debate was her ticket to college. She also knew at that point that she wanted to be a speech and debate teacher.
Shipley attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. After graduating from there, she earned a master's in secondary education at Central State University. Her passion for speech and debate continued.
In 1980, Shipley started her career as an educator at Cleveland Public Schools, teaching remedial English while creating a speech and debate program. By the time she left in 1993, she was teaching speech and debate and Advanced Composition.
In 1993, she and her family moved to Bartlesville and she began teaching debate at the Mid-High and Bartlesville High School. She spent twenty-three years teaching in Bartlesville Public Schools, transforming the BPS speech and debate program during her tenure. In addition to teaching speech and debate, she taught Language Arts, drama, stagecraft, and test preparation classes.
When reflecting on her time as an educator, Shipley is proud of what her students accomplished. Before she came to Bartlesville High, it had never had a student qualify for the national debate tournament. During her career, over 50 students qualified. Many of her students were national finalists, including one, Lawrence Zhou, who went on to be the national champion. Several of her students are attorneys, including one who clerked for a Supreme Court justice, and one works for a nonprofit in Africa.
Shipley was recognized at the local, state, and national levels for her talent and passion as a teacher. She was named the 2008 Oklahoma Speech and Debate Teacher of the Year, the 2009 Bartlesville High School Teacher of the Year, and received the National Speech and Debate Association’s Ralph E. Carey Award in 2021, which is a lifetime service award.
Shipley ended her career in 2021 after teaching speech and debate and competitive debate at Bishop Kelley in Tulsa. During her retirement, she travels and enjoys spending time with her family. She sometimes volunteers with the Lowe Family Young Scholars Program and tutors students in college prep classes. Shipley has three sons — Zack, Drew, and Matt — and three grandchildren.
Shipley is honored to be inducted into this year’s Educator Hall of Fame. She humbly claims that she merely taught classes where bright students made her look good…but her students and colleagues know the credit she deserves.
The Bartlesville Public Schools Foundation has been investing in students and staff members within the district since 1985. Over the decades, the non-profit organization has funded more than $3 million in creative projects outside of the traditional state, local and federal sources to support state-of-the-art instruction. The money generated by the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on April 27, 2023, will help fund the organization’s programs. A $1,000 grant in Shipley’s name will also go to the Bartlesville High School Speech and Debate program.
This event is open to the public and tickets are available for $35 through the BPS Foundation’s website: https://bpsfoundation.org/educator-hall-of-fame/.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Shipley named to Educator Hall of Fame
