William H. Armstrong (September 14, 1911 near Lexington, Virginia - April 11, 1999 in Kent, Connecticut) was an American children's author and educator, best known for his 1969 Newbery Medal-winning novel, Sounder.
After growing up on a farm near Lexington, Virginia, he graduated cum laude from Hampden-Sydney College in 1936, then continued his higher education with graduate work at the University of Virginia. In 1945, he became a history master ...
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William H. Armstrong (September 14, 1911 near Lexington, Virginia - April 11, 1999 in Kent, Connecticut) was an American children's author and educator, best known for his 1969 Newbery Medal-winning novel, Sounder.
After growing up on a farm near Lexington, Virginia, he graduated cum laude from Hampden-Sydney College in 1936, then continued his higher education with graduate work at the University of Virginia. In 1945, he became a history master at Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, where he remained for fifty-two years, teaching general studies and ancient history to generations of third formers (ninth graders).
Armstrong was loved, admired, and feared by his students. A truly formidable character and head of "study hall", he suffered no fools lightly. More than once he was known to send a text book flying across the classroom with unerring accuracy to awaken one inattentive student or another.
In 1956, at the request of his school headmaster, he published his first book, a study...
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