Irma Gall

SYRACUSE — Irma Gall, who grew up in the Syracuse area, has worked in rural Appalachian Kentucky for more than 60 years, teaching in one-room schoolhouses, pioneering War on Poverty programs, promoting health education, providing health services and coordinating youth and agricultural activities.

Gall graduated from Manchester in 1955 and will return to the North Manchester campus for a special presentation at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 11. “From Peace Studies to Service in the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky” will be in the upper level of the Jo Young Switzer Center on East Street.

It is free and open to the public.

Manchester University was the first school in the world to offer an undergraduate peace studies program, and Gall was the first woman to graduate with a degree from the program. In 1958, she co-founded the Lend-A-Hand Center, a nonprofit community organization that continues to serve the needs of the Stinking Creek watershed in Knox County, Ky.

Kathryn Engle, doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky and Lend-A-Hand volunteer, will introduce Gall and the work of the Lend-A-Hand Center. 

The center enriches the lives of those it serves, respecting the land, the history and the culture of southeastern Kentucky.

Gall’s presentation is part of the Values, Ideas and the Arts series at Manchester, designed to offer academic credit to undergraduate students who, through the process, gain cultural exposure, artistic experiences and intellectual enrichment.

She lives the MU Mission Statement: “Manchester University respects the infinite worth of every individual and graduates persons of ability and conviction who draw upon their education and faith to lead principled, productive, and compassionate lives that improve the human condition.”