“I love my job because, first of all, I love teaching,” explains Barbara (Richards) Tripp ’70. “This time, I have the distinct pleasure of teaching and working with college students who want to become teachers,” she continues. Tripp also has the distinct pleasure of working for her alma mater, as instructor of education and director of field experiences for the Culver-Stockton College Education Department.
As a student at Culver-Stockton Tripp was an active member of Chi Omega sorority, the concert choir and band. Following her graduation, Tripp spent a year teaching in Janesville, Wis. She later married John Tripp ’72 and moved to Quincy, Ill. At the same time she began teaching in Canton, Mo., where she spent 14 years teaching reading at various grade school levels. In 1986, Tripp began teaching for the Quincy, Ill., school district where she taught first grade for 19 years before, ending her career three years later as a third grade teacher. Now as an education instructor at Culver-Stockton, Tripp hopes to share her experience and passion for reading with generations of future educators.
Reflecting on her life and experiences as a student at Culver-Stockton, Tripp comments, “Between my major work and my Chi Omega experience, I loved being on the Hill. I later started dating John Tripp and, as I said, we married in 1971. We were blessed to be the parents of Sara Tripp Betz, now a teacher in the Quincy Public Schools. She and her husband, Mark, have two darling children, Wilson, 9 and Sasha, 3. Our second daughter, Meredith Tripp/L'Heureux, is a music teacher in the Quincy Public Schools. She and her husband, Tim, have made me Grammy to an excitable dog and a very fluffy cat,” Tripp adds. “Culver-Stockton is always in a very positive place in my mind and my heart. I hope I am a great representative for my alma mater, as both a faculty member and alum.”
