Dr. Roy G. Bigelow Collection

Dr. Roy G. Bigelow was born on October 15, 1893 in Appleton City Missouri, and he graduated from Appleton City Academy in 1912. In 1912-1913 Bigelow taught at a school in St. Clair County, Missouri and he would later become a principal and superintendent of elementary and high schools in Missouri, Kansas and Tennessee. Dr. Bigelow served as a corporal in the 89th Division in the First World War, and he was decorated with a Presidential Citation. August 1919 Dr. Bigelow married Elizabeth Ellen McCoy and they have one son Lt. Col. Mac Allen Bigelow of the United States Air Force. In 1919 Dr. Bigelow took courses at University de Montpellier, and in 1920 he received a B.S. in education from Missouri State College. Dr. Bigelow then went on to receive his master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Missouri in 1926. Dr. Bigelow received his Ph.D. in secondary administration and supervision from George Peabody College in 1939 and then completed post-doctoral work from 1939-1941 at Vanderbilt.

From 1942-1943 Dr. Bigelow became the dean of Wood Junior College in Mathiston, Mississippi. After Wood Junior College he moved to Mississippi State University in 1943 and remained there until 1947 as the head of the Department of Education. In 1947 he moved to the University of Southern Mississippi as the head of the Department of Education and Psychology where he retired from in 1958 as Dean Emeritus and as a distinguished visiting professor. After leaving Southern Miss he took a position as acting head of the Department of Education and Psychology at William Carey College.