By Sue Loughlin
TERRE HAUTE — Robert C. Mardis, a beloved principal whose inspirational leadership has had a lasting impact on Vigo County schools, died Wednesday at age 80.
He was a Vigo County elementary principal from 1952 to 1989 and spent nearly 30 years at Franklin Elementary. The Indiana Association of Elementary School Principals named him Principal of the Year in 1977.
Among his many other accolades, Mardis also was a Fulbright scholar, a 1997 Terre Award winner and was twice named a Sagamore of the Wabash. He served in the Indiana Air National Guard for 30 years and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
For Dan Tanoos, superintendent of the Vigo County School Corp., Mardis has served as a mentor, role model and father-like figure.
“He’s a great man and I’m going to miss him,” said Tanoos, who fought tears as he described Mardis’ positive impact on his life and career.
Tanoos worked with Mardis for 28 years in different capacities, initially as a teacher at Franklin Elementary. “I’m surprised he hired me in the first place,” said Tanoos.
When Tanoos — then a recent college graduate — went to interview for his first teaching job, Mardis told him, “I know your name … You had a wreck with my mother last week.”
Fortunately, Tanoos wasn’t at fault in the accident; Mardis’ mother had run a red light. “He still hired me,” Tanoos recalled. “We laughed about that.”
Tanoos spent six years at Franklin “learning from someone who loved kids and who role-modeled every day how to treat people.”
Mardis encouraged his staff to be the best they could be and to set higher goals for themselves. He encouraged Tanoos to become a principal.
Tanoos learned from his mentor that “if you treat people fairly, and with respect and professionalism, they’ll show you that same respect and professionalism.”
During the last school year, Mardis was an attendance consultant with the school district and helped Tanoos tackle the high-school dropout issue.
“We kept an office here and were waiting for him to come back,” Tanoos said, but in the end, cancer claimed Mardis’ life.
Mardis also had a strong influence on Camilla Correll, the school district’s executive director of elementary education.
She taught for Mardis 13 years at Franklin Elementary, and he encouraged her to go into school administration. She did her principal internship at Franklin, and when Mardis retired, she became the school’s next principal.
“His influence was huge in nudging me to take the next step,” she said.
“He was always very visionary and a compassionate leader,” Correll said. “He was a model of professionalism, inspirational leadership and lifelong learning.”
He made decisions that were in the best interest of children. “He put them first,” Correll said.
Franklin students often came from disadvantaged backgrounds, and Mardis always looked for ways to help them overcome their challenges, she said.
Susan Mardis, now a principal at Deming Elementary, knew Bob Mardis both as a father-in-law and an educational mentor. “I’ve been so proud of him. I know the impact he’s had with children,” she said.
He was a positive role model not only to educators, but also to his students. “He gave them inspiration that they could do anything they wanted to do,” she said.
He’d often visit the homes of Franklin families and help them solve any problems they might have, whether social, academic or otherwise. “He always was uplifting and always had an encouraging word,” Susan Mardis said.
Her father-in-law saw the potential in people he hired and helped them achieve their leadership potential, she said.
Even during the last school year, Bob Mardis continued to make home visits as an attendance consultant, and he’d visit businesses and ask for their help in providing attendance incentives, such as coupons to a fast-food restaurant.
“He was a class act,” Susan Mardis said.
He also was his grandchildren’s number-one fan at any and all athletic and extracurricular events. “He went to everything,” she said.
Tanoos recalled that the only time he ever saw Mardis get upset was when a referee didn’t give his grandchildren a fair shake.
One of Mardis’ grandchildren, Matt Mardis, fondly recalled how his grandfather and grandmother would fly all the way to North Carolina to support him and watch him play basketball at Campbell University. Those visits are among his favorite memories of his grandfather. “He was a really good family man,” Matt Mardis said.
He also remembers that his grandfather “was always so giving and caring toward others. He held a special place in his heart for those less fortunate,” Matt Mardis said.
Bob Mardis was active in the community. He was chairman of the Elks Youth Activities Committee, which sponsors the annual Hoop Shoot contest as well scholarships for local students.
He served for many years with the Indiana Juvenile Justice State Advisory Group.
Janice Kluesner, who also taught for Mardis at Franklin Elementary, learned some important lessons from him.
In her first year of teaching, she disciplined a child who misbehaved, and the parent thought the consequences were too severe.
In a meeting that involved Mardis, Kluesner and the parent, Mardis stood behind his teacher 100 percent and made it clear to the parent that Kluesner was in charge of her classroom and would make decisions about what was best for students in her classroom.
Privately, he suggested to Kluesner a better way to handle a similar situation in the future.
The lesson she learned was to think first about how to approach a problem, rather than to immediately react to a problem.
He was a great man and a gentleman to the end, Kluesner said.
When the School Board was considering naming the Franklin Elementary playground after Mardis, Kluesner gave her perspective on why he deserved the honor.
The Vigo County School Corp. motto is excellence in education, and “Bob Mardis is the definition of excellence in education,” she said.
Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.
The following is a poem written and submitted by Bob Mardis' grandson Matt.
