MMHMF Honoree
MRS. THELMA BLAND WYATT
2012 Education Service Award Recipient
Thelma is an educator and mathematician who has dedicated her life to helping students succeed. Now retired (1993),She was employed as a math teacher for 34 years: 2 years in Pit County, North Carolina; two years in Dinwiddie County, Virginia; and seven years at Carver High School, Chester, Virginia;; 16 years at Meadowbrook High School, Chesterfield, Virginia; and seven years at Matoaca High School, Chesterfield, Virginia. She has also been an adjunct instructor at John Tyler Community College and Virginia State University. Now retired (1993), she continues making a difference in the education of young people as a committed volunteer.
A native of Chesterfield County, she graduated from Carver High School in 1955. She earned a B.S. degree in Mathematics from North Carolina Central University in 1959 and a M.Ed. from Virginia State University in 1969.
She says: “My passion is working with the student who absolutely thinks he/she cannot do this and/or has graduated from high school and needs to pick up a few classes to pursue furthering his/her education. I just cannot say no to that student who was either misguided in high school or has just reached the maturity level where he/she knows that this is an absolute necessity.”Thelma has tutored middle school, high school and college students in her family, surrounding communities and beyond in her home, over the phone and by email. She has helped students as far away as Texas and Minnesota. For the Chesterfield County students, she gets a copy of the County textbooks to have on hand to assist students when they call.
In 2000 – 2011, she was a volunteer with the “Closing the Gap” program at First Baptist Church, Harrison Street in Petersburg, Virginia. The program provided instructions on taking the SAT to 8th grade students from Peabody Middle School in Petersburg.
A member of Gillfield Baptist Church, Petersburg, she participates in the Church’s mid-day Bible study class, the Tellers Ministry, and coordinated the College Incentive Award program for several years.
She has been married to Herman A. Wyatt for 51 years. They have two adult children, Juli and Todd, and one grandson, Aaron, whom they reared.