Gerald Maynard

Gerald Maynard was born in Detroit, Michigan, due to his parents moving there to find work and he attended elementary school in Michigan.  He would spend the summer in Tennessee with cousins and other relatives.  His family moved back to Tennessee in 1960 and Gerald started high school at Livingston Academy as a freshman.

He chose LA because he wanted to play in the band and play football.  He had two sisters and a brother that attended Rickman High School.  Gerald loved to tell his students that he walked to school every day for four years.  The truth is that he knew a couple of ladies that always drove to Livingston about the same time each morning, so he knew what time to be outside his house and most of the time they would stop and pick him up.  So basically, he hitch-hiked to school for four years.

After high school, Gerald attended the University of Tennessee – Knoxville where his major was in Agriculture – Animal Science.  He was very active in 4-H and was in the ROTC program at UT.  He got his teaching certificate and upon graduating from UT, accepted a position teaching at Rickman High School under Principal G. P. Frazier and taught for three years at Rickman.

He decided to leave the teaching profession and accepted a position at Pacesetters working with mentally and physically challenged adults.  He started the center in Livingston and worked in that profession for approximately eight years.  After leaving Pacesetters, Gerald accepted a position with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) at Livingston Regional Hospital as business office manager.  He never hung his diploma in his office wall at the hospital because it showed his degree was in Animal Science.  When he saw that HCA was selling the hospital, he decided to leave the hospital for a different career.  Gerald went to work at Plateau Mental Health and worked with at-risk children as a counselor for about seven years.

In the early 1990s, under the direction of Vocational Director Jerry Glasscock, the Agriculture Department at Livingston Academy was expanded.  Terry Webb had built the LA Ag program up at LA and the school needed an additional agriculture teacher.   Jerry Glasscock approached Gerald and he returned to the teaching profession at his Alma Mater.  After he started teaching again, Mrs. Joyce Ramsey persuaded him to go back to college and pursue a master’s degree.  Gerald attended Tennessee Tech and received his masters degree in Administration and Supervision.

While teaching at LA, Gerald taught alongside fellow Ag teachers Terry Webb, Mac Johnson and Michael Johnson during his teaching career.  He also served as an assistant principal under Gary Beaty, Harold Watson, Gary Ledbetter and Lesley Riddle.  Gerald was honored to serve as principal of Livingston Academy for one year when the gentleman hired as principal didn’t work out.  Gerald loved teaching and he also loved the students that he taught.  He retired from Livingston Academy in 2010 but worked as a substitute teacher at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Livingston for several years.

Gerald and his wife, Reba, reside in Livingston.  They enjoy traveling and have traveled by motorcycle or vehicle up and down the East Coast from Florida to Canada and out west from Texas to Montana and all the states in-between.  They are proud to have recently become grandparents of Indiana Jonathan Maynard.