“Have as much fun as you can,” the late Dr. Linda McElroy’s footprint on USAO
Dr. Linda McElroy, a former Professor of Education, unfortunately passed away August 31, 2025, just two weeks shy of 76 years old. Dr. McElroy had been a teacher for 40 years, 30 of which she served at USAO, her own alma mater. Dr. McElroy received the USAO Regents Superior Teaching Award in 2009 as well as the USAO Gladys Anderson Emerson Faculty Research Stipend and was inducted into the USAO Alumni Hall of Fame in the fall of 2024.
Dr. Sarah Layman, who had worked alongside Dr. McElroy since 2011, stated Dr. McElroy was an encouraging and supportive colleague. Dr. Layman said back when she herself was a new faculty member, Dr. McElroy would reach out to be sure everything was going smoothly. Dr. Layman also shared that Dr. McElroy went out of her way outside of class to support and mentor students, even reaching out to graduates to offer moral support and advice.
“She would tell her students, if they were struggling with an assignment, ‘it’s okay, you’ll still be a teacher,'” said Layman.
Serving on campus as a member of many committees such as the Admission to Teacher’s Education Committee and Secretary of the Division of Education and Speech Pathology, Dr. McElroy was incredibly supportive of students all over campus. She could be spotted at any sporting event or performance and even served as the faculty advisor for the USAO Baptist Collegiate Ministries.
“Any student that got to know her knows how caring she was to USAO. She was always here at everything she could possibly go to. Her son said… it’s like she really had FOMO.”
Dr. McElroy, true to her Ph.D. in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum- Literacy/Reading, was a vocal advocate for reading. She was a part of the International Reading Association, National Reading Conference, Oklahoma Higher Education Reading Council, Oklahoma State Department of Education Reading Consortium, Oklahoma Reading Association, and the Grady County Reading Association.
“I found it very fitting that she was born in September, and September is (the International Reading Association’s) Literacy Month.”
Dr. McElroy earned her first degree, Bachelor’s of Science in Vocational Home Economics, from the Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts (OCLA) back in 1969. In 1985 she returned to OCLA, now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO), and earned her second degree, Bachelor’s of Science in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, in 1985. Dr. McElroy taught children for ten years, in that time achieving a Master of Education Degree in Literacy/Reading Specialist at the University of Oklahoma (OU). She returned to USAO as a professor in 1995 while working toward her doctorate at OU, achieving her Ph.D. in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum- Literacy/Reading in 2000. Dr. Layman says even beyond her degrees Dr. McElroy modeled lifelong learning.
“I saw her as a knowledgeable colleague, especially in her area of literacy instruction,” said Layman. “She had the most literacy background of any of our faculty members, so she was our expert in that area.”
Dr. Layman mentioned the possibility of a “Linda’s Little Lending Library” being built soon, books donated by Dr. McElroy’s children from her own library, although concrete plans have not yet been made.
For more information about Dr. Linda McElroy and her accomplishments, you can read her obituary at Obituary | Dr. Linda Joyce McElroy of Chickasha, Oklahoma | Sevier Funeral Home.
Jessiekah Cook is a third-year Creative Writing major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
