The Ram yearbook (1947), Winston-Salem Teachers College.
In 1941, Samuel Price Geralds graduated from C.H. Darden High School, where he played football. Geralds was born in 1920 in Plymouth, Washington County, N.C., to Boyd and Viola Cooper Geralds. The family moved often in Geralds’ young life and apparently did not live in Wilson long.
Winston-Salem Journal, 25 May 1947.
Geralds’ education at Winston-Salem was interrupted by military service. He earned a Purple Heart after receiving a serious wound in Germany. He finished his undergraduate studies in 1947, then received a masters degree from the University of Iowa in 1950. He then went on to fulfill his college nickname, “Professor,” when he joined the faculty of Louisiana’s Southern University.
The TC Alumni Bulletin, October 1950.
Per his obituary in the Baton Rouge Advocate, 2 January 2009:
Samuel Price Geralds, a retired assistant professor with Southern University, died Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, at Baton Rouge General Medical Center-Mid City. He was 88, a resident of Baton Rouge and native of Plymouth, N.C.
Visiting at Hall’s Celebration Center, 9348 Scenic Highway, until religious service, conducted by Bertell Davis, pastor of Magnolia Baptist Church. Interment in Port Hudson National Cemetery, Zachary. Arrangements by Hall Davis & Son Funeral Service.
He is survived by his best friend and former wife, Inez S. Geralds; son, David; three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and relatives, friends and former students.
Preceded in death by his parents.
After graduating from the University of Iowa in 1950 with a master’s degree in speech pathology, he accepted a position with the Louisiana Department of Education, becoming the first African-American speech pathologist in Louisiana. He subsequently became a member of the Southern University faculty. He remained a faculty member in the profession for the next 50 years until his retirement in 2005. Among his distinctions, he was a recipient of the Purple Heart Medal for his military service during World War II in the European-African-Middle Eastern theater and served as chair of the speech pathology program. He also served as chair of the National Black Association for Speech Language Hearing Board of Directors, was awarded the Fellow member of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) and was a nominee for ASHA’s highest award, Honors of the Association. He was an avid reader and enjoyed solving crossword puzzles. He nurtured and mentored most students who passed within earshot of his voice, and, if possible, would have gone fishing every day.
