Julia Jarvis graduated in 1934 from Washington Irving High School in Clarksburg. In 1938 she received her AB degree from Duke University, and while at Duke, was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, a national social sorority. She earned her Master’s degree from West Virginia University in 1963 and her Masters-plus-30 classification in 1968.
Mrs. Jarvis began her teaching career in Harrison County in several schools before transferring to Bridgeport High School in 1954. During her 27-year teaching career, she taught sophomore English at Bridgeport High until 1978, and for many years, served as the faculty advisor for the BHS National Honor Society. She was a member of the NEA, the WVEA, the Harrison County Association of Retired Employees, Delta Kappa Gamma teachers’ honorary sorority, and the American Association of University Women.
Mrs. Jarvis’s contributions to the quality education of her students at Bridgeport High are well known. She had a strong work ethic, spending numerous hours grading and revising her students ‘compositions. The language skills she taught gave her students the confidence to express themselves in any academic, social, or professional situation they would face in the future. Her former students often praise the writing skills they learned from her, plus the importance of correct grammar, being concise, and the value of the thesaurus. She inspired in her students with a love of writing and reading with skills to analyze both.
She had two children, Julie Tomes and Jackson Jarvis, six grandchildren, and six great grandchildren, two of whom are attending Bridgeport High School now.
She remains one of the most outstanding English teachers who ever taught at Bridgeport High