“What you say teaches some, what you do teaches more, what you are teaches most.” This motto was espoused by Paul H. Cale Sr. (1909–1987) throughout his public professional life as an educator and administrator. Those who knew him would add that it exemplified his private life as well.
Born in North Carolina, Paul was the first of eight children of William F. and Mary V. (Harrell) Cale. The last additions to their family, infant twins, a boy and girl, died shortly after birth, when Paul was ten years of age. His father was a Baptist minister as was, later, Paul’s next younger brother William. The rural areas of northeastern North Carolina served as the learning grounds for his passion for hunting and fishing, pastimes that provided him enjoyment and relaxation for many years.
With degrees from the University of Richmond and University of Virginia, he began his lifelong career in public education at Albemarle County in 1931. Paul and Hallie V. (Sandridge) Cale (b.1910) were married in 1933, just prior to the beginning of his third year of teaching at Red Hill High School in southern Albemarle County.
Due to the limitations of a teacher’s salary, the newlyweds lived with the bride’s parents in Crozet, next door to her father’s gasoline filling station. In 1935, Mr. Cale was selected as principal for Greenwood High School, leading that school’s cadre of nine teachers until mid-1946, when he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools. The following year he was named Superintendent…