Randall Kirkwood Harley, Jr. was born November 30, 1927
in Nashville, TN. He received the B.S. degree from Middle Tennessee
State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, TN in Mathematics in 1949,
the M.A. in Educational Administration from Peabody College in Nashville,
TN in 1955, and the Ph. D. in Special Education in Visually Impaired from
Peabody in 1962.
He taught part of one year at an elementary school in
Nashville until he was drafted in the U.S. Army. He worked as a
military instructor for two years. He was a teacher and principal of
a Davidson County, TN elementary school from 1953 -1958. He was a
teacher and principal of the North Carolina School for the Blind from
1959-1964. He was a professor of special education at George Peabody
College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University from 1964-1994 with one year
(1967-68) leave of absence as a
visiting professor of Vidyodaya University of Ceylon, Sri Lanka.
Upon retirement in 1994, he was awarded the title of
Professor Emeritus of Special Education of Vanderbilt University.
During his work at Peabody he wrote many articles for educational
publications, received many grants for research projects, and co-authored
a few books, the latest two are: Communication Skills for Visually
Impaired Learners published in 1997 and Visual Impairment in the Schools
published in 2000.
Randall married Jayne Robinson in 1956. Jayne was
born in Chicago, Il. She was
an elementary teacher when they married, retired two years later to rear
children, received the M.A. in elementary education 1969 from Peabody and
certification in the education of visually impaired in 1982, and returned
to teach at the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville from 1983 to
1999.
Jayne devotes the majority of her time to traditional
home making activities plus rearing children, and helping with
grandchildren.
They had three children, Jim, Tom and Lydia and adopted
a forth, Timothy.
Jim is an emergency room pediatric physician practicing
in a children's hospital in San Diego, California. He received his
degree from the University of Tennessee.
Tom works as a noise reduction scientist for Texas
Instrument in Columbia, Maryland. He received the Ph D in physics
from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.
Lydia is in college at Tennessee State University in
Nashville completing a degree in nursing.
Timothy is in high school in Nashville.
In private life Randall volunteers with a prison
ministry in a prison in Nashville and one in Only, TN, ; a ministry of
visiting shut-ins in local nursing homes; drives a bus for an Inner City
Church of Christ ministry and works with a summer camp for inner city
children supervising water safety; and joined Jayne in tutoring young
children in reading in the local elementary school. He, with his
wife Jayne, have been on short missionary trips to Belize and Guatamala in
Central America, and Zambia and Ghana in Africa.
