Otha Sherrill, retired educator and community activist. Photo: Urban News archives

by Sarah Williams

Otha Sherrill, known throughout the region as O.L., can be described with a few choice adjectives: dapper, tall, dark, and handsome, for example, to say nothing of well-spoken, dedicated, engaged, and devoted to his community. He is also the husband of Mrs. Jessie Forney Sherrill and the father of Keith and the late Wanda Sherrill.

Sherrill is a native of Statesville, North Carolina and attended Morningside High School there. Before moving to the Asheville area, he earned a B. S. and M.S., EDS from North Carolina A&T University. He was graduated in 1954, the unforgettable year that the great desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education, was handed down by the Supreme Court.

His parents, he says, were his role models. He grew up in a Baptist church, where “the older women were the key to guidance and motivation. I hooked my star to their beliefs.” That motivation, along with his faith and hard work, has led to many proud moments over the years. One that stands out for him was receiving the Buncombe Human Relations Council’s Distinguished Citizen Award. Sherrill felt especially honored to receive the award the year after it was given to beloved Asheville physician Dr. John Holt.

After earning his Master’s Degree, Sherrill relocated to South Hill, Virginia, where he taught for a year before being drafted into the U. S. Navy for a two-year tour of duty. When he returned to civilian life, he was hired by the Mooresville (NC) school system as social studies and physical education teacher and basketball coach. He had wanted to live in Greensboro after serving in the Navy, but at that time it was difficult, if not impossible, for women to buy houses there, whether married or not. Mrs. Sherrill had a home in Black Mountain, and they decided to move there. In 1962 he started his long, illustrious career with the Asheville City Schools.

In Asheville Sherrill taught for one year under the legendary principal Mrs. Rita Lee before being transferred to Stephens-Lee High School. The segregated “Castle on the Hill” was renowned throughout the region for its excellence in academics, sports, and music, and it was there that Sherrill began to establish his reputation as a remarkable educator and community leader.

Sherrill says that there were certain positive aspects to working in a segregated system. For one thing, he noted, at Stephens-Lee “the faculty formed a close relationship, and they also had a personal relationship with students and families. Teachers were more demanding and discipline was enforced.” Those benefits diminished when the system was integrated. “We lost family involvement,” he says, and the demand for excellence wasn’t as strong it had been before.

Several years after he started teaching at Stephens-Lee, South French Broad High School opened, and Sherrill and the rest of the Stephens-Lee staff moved to the new school; later he was appointed assistant principal there. Then, in 1969, when South French Broad and Lee Edwards High Schools merged under mandatory desegregation rules, he became Assistant Principal and Dean of Boys at the newly named Asheville High School. He stayed for three years, helping minimize the civil unrest that accompanied the merger.

In 1972 Sherrill was promoted to principal, first at William Randolph Elementary School and four years later at Hall Fletcher Middle School. He then returned to Asheville High, where he worked as co-principal for many years with Bill Stanley, now a Buncombe County Commissioner, and later with Dr. Larry Liggitt. He retired after twenty-seven years in the Asheville City Schools system.

Perhaps dating from his days as Dean of Boys, or even from the church ladies and his own parents, Sherrill still has advice for young fathers of today, advice that’s particularly pertinent around Father’s Day: “I would tell them to man up.” He’s clearly lived that advice himself. When asked why people speak so highly of him, he responded, “I’m a people person. I’ve always treated people the way I want to be treated.”
How well O.L. Sherrill treats people is evidenced by the list of community organizations he has served. He has been president or chairman of the NCTA

Teachers Organization, the NC Division of Principals, the State Legislative Committee of the NC Division of Principals, the ABC Board of Black Mountain, the Buncombe County Social Service Board, and the Black Mountain Martin Luther King Breakfast.

He has served as a board member of the State Principal Division, the Buncombe County Board of Elections, the NC High School Athletic Association, Swannanoa Medical Center, Good Neighbor Council-Black Mountain, Health Initiative, Black Mountain Mediation, United Way, Asheville Chamber of Commerce, YMICC, NC Credit Union, Bank of America, Broughton Foundation, Manna Food Bank, and Black Mountain Foundation for Alzheimer’s Patients. He is also a Golden Life Member in NAACP, serving as membership chair, and a 3rd Degree Mason, 32nd Degree Consistory Shriner, and member of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity.