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Ellis and Peggy Haguewood Named 2024 Distinguished Alumnus Award Winners
Congratulations to our 2024 Distinguished Alumnus Award recipients, Ellis (’63) and Peggy Haguewood (’63).
The Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes Harding Academy graduates who have enhanced the reputation of Harding Academy through their professional and community leadership and their advancement of Harding Academy’s mission.
For only the third time in our history, we are recognizing not one, but two people with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Why? Because their educational journeys, their service to our community, and their lives have been pretty much inseparable since 1957 when they were in the seventh grade together at Harding Academy. We are recognizing this couple not only for their advancement of Harding Academy’s mission, but for their unwavering commitment to the Kingdom of God via education in the Memphis community.
Walking into her first class in 7th grade in 1957, she was seated next to him but did not realize that not only would they share nearly every class together for the next six years, they would be together for the rest of their lives. They both were active leaders in Beta Club, Key Club, student council, and chorus, and he was elected class president for six years in a row. She was a cheerleader, he played baseball and basketball. When they graduated from Harding Academy in 1963 to head to Harding College she was voted “Friendliest” and he “Most Likely to Succeed.”
After graduating from Harding College in 1967, she returned to Harding Academy to teach history while he headed to Vanderbilt to pursue a master’s degree. He proposed in September of 1967, and they were married on June 1, 1968. She continued to teach history and government at Harding Academy until 1995 (with two important interruptions when their son Alan and their daughter Lisa were born in 1971 and 1973). He taught English for one year in Mississippi before being hired to teach at Memphis University School where he served in a variety of roles before being named Headmaster in 1995. After serving in that role for 22 years, he retired in 2017.
In retirement their remarkable service continues as they both serve as volunteer mentors in the Academy 4 program at Leadership Prep charter school and he serves on the board of the Memphis Opportunity Scholarship Trust (MOST) program providing low-income children with scholarships to attend private and parochial schools. They are champions of education who collectively have over 80 years of service to children and families in Memphis.
They are active members at the White Station Church of Christ where he serves as an elder. On June 1 they will celebrate 56 years of marriage. They are proud parents of two Harding Academy alums, Alan (1990) and Lisa (1992) and proud grandparents of three grandchildren Elias (24), Jonas (20), and Nora (16).