Tireman, L. S. (Loyd Spencer), 1896-1959

Born in Orchard, Iowa; died in Albuquerque, N.M. Pioneer in bilingual and community education. In 1927 began his 32 year career at the University of New Mexico as a professor of elementary education. In 1947, Dr. Tireman established a curriculum materials center, which grew into a library located at the University of New Mexico College of Education.

From the description of Papers, 1923-1957. (University of New Mexico-Main Campus). WorldCat record id: 33376748

Loyd Spencer Tireman was born in 1896 in Orchard, Iowa, and died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1959. He came to the University of New Mexico in 1927 and, as a professor of elementary education, spent thirty-two years struggling with problems of teaching reading, bicultural education, and school-community relations.

Tireman graduated from Fayette High School, Fayette Iowa, in 1913 and attended Upper Iowa State University, graduating with a B.A. in 1917. After a two year stint in the military, he returned to Iowa to marry Pearl Garretson and attended normal school courses at Cedar Falls. Soon afterward he became school superintendent at Hanlontown, Iowa. In 1920, he moved to the same position at a larger school in Greeley, Iowa. From 1922 to 1926, he was the superintendent in Postville, Iowa. In 1924, during his tenure at Postville, Tireman earned an M.A. degree at the University of Iowa at Iowa City. His continued studies in education and psychology led to a Ph.D from the same university in 1927.

Loyd Tireman was a pioneer in bilingual and community education. The high points in his professional career were three educational experiments in New Mexico in the 1930's: the San Jos? Demonstration and Experimental School; the curriculum revision work generated from the San Jos? experience; and the Namb? Community School. The foundations of these programs probably evolved from his own early education which included community-based education, the idea of the importance of schooling in forming good citizens, and children's needs as forming the core of the school effort.

At the University of New Mexico, Dr. Tireman taught elementary education from 1927 until 1935 at which time he was named head of the Department of Elementary Education, a post he held until his death in 1959. In 1947, Tireman established a curriculum materials center in the basement of Hodgin Hall on the UNM campus. That collection grew into a library which bears the name of its founder. The Tireman Learning Materials Center, which opened in 1965, is located in the College of Education.

Dr. Tireman wrote seven books for young readers, published as the Mesaland Series by the University of New Mexico Press between 1943 and 1949. In 1948 he published A Community School in a Spanish Speaking Village, which described in detail the program at Namb?, and in 1951, Teaching Spanish Speaking Children was published by the University of New Mexico Press. The New Mexico Journal of Reading recognized Dr. Tireman's participation in the promotion of education in New Mexico in the article "History of the IRA in New Mexico: 1963-1981, Part I: Historical Antecedents"(Vol. 2, No. 3, Spring 1982 by Miles Zintz). His work has also been praised in the 1991 book Educational Reform in New Mexico: Tireman, San Jos? and Namb?, by David L. Bachelor.

From the guide to the L. S. Tireman Papers, 1923-1957, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)