REGION MOURNS LOSS OF LONGTIME EDUCATOR

His career covered teaching, administration and the longest tenure of any superintendent in the city's history. And one of Cape Girardeau's oldest school building bears his name.

Louis J. Schultz served 38 years as an educator in Cape Girardeau, 27 of them as superintendent. He died Feb. 24, 1968, at age 71.

His education career began in 1916 when he was a coach and shop teacher at Maryville. It was interrupted for two years during World War I, when he served in the Navy.

But it was Cape Girardeau where Schultz found a home. He began his tenure with the school district in 1924 as an industrial arts teacher.

At his retirement dinner in 1962, the Southeast Missourian reported, "He was the guest of honor at a dinner of the Community Teachers Association, but the attendance was much broader, the dinner gathering spilling over into the hallway and anterooms of Memorial Hall ballroom on the State College campus."

Rush H. Limbaugh, a past school board member and friend of Schultz, said at the dinner, "A superintendent is a strange kind of character. He must be a diplomat, a marriage consultant, an educator, a politician and a businessman, among others."

Limbaugh added, "He who receives our admiration tonight has heard our criticisms and bears the marks on him yet. As a board member I saw the problems that faced him from teachers, board members and from citizens. The superintendent must serve as a cushion between all the things that cannot be done and those who insist they can be done."

In 1965, the long-standing school building was renovated and renamed in honor of Schultz.

He spent a major portion of his career in the building that bears his name. He served eight years as high school principal before being named superintendent.

When Schultz was named superintendent on April 28, 1935, his salary was $3,500.

Schultz was superintendent during an unprecedented period of expansion in the school system. From the time he took the office in 1935 until his retirement, enrollment grew from 3,017 pupils to 4,305. The budget increased from $186,614 to $1.7 million.

Lorimier School and Central High School were erected. Immediately before his retirement, Schultz handled the details of a $1.65 million bond issue which built the Central Junior High and added rooms to Jefferson and Alma Schrader schools.

He and his twin brother, Leo Schultz, who was superintendent of schools at Cairo, Ill., were co-authors of a nationally-used textbook on industrial arts, "School and Home Workshop Book." At the time of publication, it was the only book of its kind on the market.

But it was as superintendent that Schultz made his mark on the community.

At the retirement dinner, Limbaugh said: "Did you ever stop to think of the things he must be an expert in? He must administer $2 to $3 million in money each year. He must handle 200 teachers. He must know about the cafeterias. He must know the properties of the school system. He must be an expert on curriculum.

"There are hundreds of details a superintendent must be familiar with and must spend his life with," Limbaugh said.

At the tribute, Schultz said, "I feel I have been most fortunate to have been connected with the Cape Girardeau schools all these years."