‘Doc’ Cranford mentored teachers, advocated for diversity

Leroy Parks didn’t think he wanted to teach middle school science when he got his first job offer from a Wichita middle school in the early 1990s. He wanted to be a coach and teach physical education.

Then he called his mentor, Evies “Doc” Cranford, who set him straight.

“He told me, ‘Listen, you get in where you fit in,’ ” remembers Parks, now the principal at Chester I. Lewis Academic Learning Academy in Wichita.

“He said, ‘There aren’t very many minority science teachers, quite frankly, and we need you,’ ” Parks said. “It was like Doc had spoken, and he knew best.”

Dr. Cranford ended that phone call the way he ended nearly every call, e-mail or conversation, Parks said:

“See you later, babe.”

Dr. Cranford, who worked 20 years as a teacher, principal and administrator for the Wichita school district, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer. He was 76.

Friends and former colleagues say Dr. Cranford, through mentoring African-American teachers in Wichita and elsewhere, was a stalwart advocate for the value of diversity in education. He also helped guide the Wichita district’s transition from junior highs to middle schools in the late 1980s.

Born in Overton, Texas, in 1940, Dr. Cranford moved at a young age to Lufkin, Texas, where he graduated as valedictorian of his high school class. He attended Jarvis Christian College, a historically black college in Hawkins, Texas, where he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees.

He worked briefly as assistant superintendent for intercultural relations for the Syracuse, N.Y., public school district before returning to Jarvis in 1977 as its dean. While there, he met his wife, Sharon.

In 1979, the couple were offered full fellowships to Kansas State University to work on their doctorates, which they completed in 1981.

Shortly afterward they moved to Wichita, where he worked as a science teacher at Hamilton Middle School and founded the Cranford Living & Learning Centers, a mental health counseling and residential agency that served Wichita’s African-American community.

Sharon Cranford said her husband’s love for children, his diplomacy and his belief in the value of education were the reasons he was tapped to help transition Wichita’s junior high schools to middle schools in the 1980s.

“He believed in the middle school concept,” Sharon Cranford said. “He believed that was your last opportunity to be a child instead of trying to emulate the adults.”

Parks, the Wichita principal, said Dr. Cranford was “one of the most compassionate men that I knew, a man of integrity and certainly a role model” for students and teachers.

“As a young teacher or principal, it’s so important to have that person that takes the time to really explain to you how to navigate the system,” Parks said.

“He told us it was OK to have passion or a spirited debate, but it’s important to temper that in a way to really be heard, so your message doesn’t get lost in that enthusiasm.”

After leaving the principal ranks, Dr. Cranford served as director of secondary personnel and as parental liaison.

After retiring from the school district in 2001, he became chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Central Kansas. Dr. Cranford rallied the business community and individual donors to bring the agency out of the red and lay the groundwork for its current facility near 21st and Grove.

“He missed the kids, and he must have said that once too often because as soon as he retired he was right back with them,” Sharon Cranford said.

A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Saint Mark United Methodist Church, 1525 N. Lorraine.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 5:46 PM with the headline "‘Doc’ Cranford mentored teachers, advocated for diversity."