The College of Education recognized Dr. Shirley Spears with its Outstanding Alumnus Award for 2002. Spears is director of the B.B. Comer Memorial Library and Public Information Center in Sylacauga, Alabama. She was honored at the college's 21^st annual Awards and Recognition on April 11, 2002.

Spears graduated in 1972 with a BS degree in education, in 1974 with M.Ed. in educational media and an Ed.D. in 1982 in social science education from Auburn.

She was nominated for the award by Dr. Judith V. Lechner, associate professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology.

Lechner said that through her work as library director, Spears has strived for years toward the ideal of public education through the public library, an American institution, founded in 1812 on the premise that a democracy requires an educated public.

"Her experience as an economically deprived child has developed in her an appreciation for the role of the public library to complement and extend the public school in education the general public. By focusing on all segments of the greater Sylacauga community, Dr. Spears reaches both those member of the public who are comfortable in the world of books and information technology and those whose literacy experiences are limited," Lechner said.

Lechner said that since graduating from Auburn, Spears has focused on the education of people of all ages and walks of life through her role as the director of the library. She has applied her considerable knowledge and interests to reaching as wide a range of the public as possible.

"She has worked to serve all ages, from infants and their minimally literate mothers to teens whose curiosity and love of learning she fosters with creative programing, through adults, including the elderly to whom she brings scholars, artists, and community leaders from throughout the state," Lechner said.

Dr. Andrew Weaver, professor and head of the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, recalled knowing Spears since she was a junior at Auburn.

He was her advisor at the B.S. and M.Ed. levels and served as chair of her doctoral committee.

"It has been very rewarding for me to observe Shirley change from a shy and scared farm girl to a position of leadership in her community and state, as well as to see her receive recognition at the highest national level. Her life has been a truly American success story," Weaver said.

Spears and her staff at Sylacauga's Comer Library

Spears has been director at Comer Library since 1983. Prior to that, she was librarian at Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, Alabama for 12 years.

A graduate of Fayetteville High School, Spears worked her way through college to become a library professional.

Her achievements, along with the library and its staff, have been recognized locally, statewide and nationally.

The library's youth service program was named one of the top 10 in the nation by the American Library Association.

B.B. Comer Library was one of only four libraries in the country honored in 2000 by the Institute for Museum & Library Services in Washington, D.C.

Spears was recognized with the Eminent Librarian Award in 2001 by the Alabama Library Association.

She accepted the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Dr. Frances K. Kochan, interim dean of the College of Education.

Spears said she wished she had the words to express how much the award means to her.

"But all I can say is thank you and I accept with great humility since so many deserving people could have been chosen. Almost as good as the award is the chance to say what education and schools, especially Auburn University, have meant to me," she said.

Spears said education is still the number one way out of poverty, "just as it was for me so many years ago. My life was forever changed when a yellow school bus from Talladega County drove to transport sharecroppers' children, like me, to school. In my little community, there was no electricity, no cars and no books, except at the church where we had songbooks and a Bible."

Spears said she couldn't wait to learn how to read. Books opened a whole, rich, beautiful new world for her.

She recalled years spent going to college after working in a cotton mill each day.

"In 1965, something wonderful happened. The junior college came to Alexander City. I still couldn't drive, so again, I literally walked out of that cotton mill and into night school. I was scared, and I felt so old. A student at 25 years of age. I wasn't sure I could still learn," Spears said.

She told about meeting Weaver and how he changed her life.

"I wandered down the hall in the biggest building I had ever been in, and I met a kind and caring man that helped change my life again, Dr. Andrew Weaver," she said.

Spears said time after time she experienced the wonder of Auburn University, the help, the nurturing and the warmth of a faculty that cares about students and "may I say that the circle of love and caring for students at Auburn University doesn't end with a degree, outreach and service are alive and well at Auburn University."

The library director said she believes the College of Education at the university does the most important work in the world- "a school that trains teacher to help people like me change their lives through education."

Spears thanked her library staff and board and her husband, Dr. Ted Spears. for helping her to even be eligible for the award.