| Sources |
- [S51] The Seymour Herald, (www.smokymountainherald.com), 28 Apr 2006.
“It’s a monumental time for the Sevier County School System,” said SCSS Finance Director Karen King who was presented with an $800,000 check by Pittman Center Mayor Glenn Cardwell on Thursday.
In all, $1 million was raised which will aid in the construction of the Pittman Center School.
“Glenn is making the first installment of a pledge made by the City of Pittman Center to the Board of Education, that if we would build a new school, they would like to add the niceties,” said King.
“This is the first time ever that the school system has gone into a joint effort with a community to build a school,” said John McClure, chairman of the Sevier County School Board.
The million-dollar pledge consists entirely of check-by-check donations promised by members of the community and not by taxpayer’s dollars. Cardwell said that the pledges came from area churches, civic organizations, corporations and from individuals in the community.
“We went to different organizations and showed them a ten-minute video that we had created to let them see our vision,” said Cardwell. “Through the experience, I’ve met wonderful people and they have responded to this in a way that I never would have thought,” he said.
Construction on the new school is already underway with a groundbreaking ceremony held in November, last year. The school will be built in two phases, with one section of the building to be ready by the 2007-2008 School Year.
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 28 Jul 2006.
No end in his sights
By: CANDICE GRIMM, Staff Writer July 28, 2006
To chronicle the full life he has lived, Glenn Cardwell, eight-year mayor of Pittman Center, starts with the future.
"When my second term ends in November, I'll be one month shy of my 76th birthday. If I'm re-elected, I'll be 80 at the end of my third term," said Cardwell.
"I'm not campaigning - I didn't before. But, I have registered for re-election," said Cardwell, adding that the only reason he ran for mayor of the 500-resident town was that he was asked to by friends.
Saying that he never thought of getting into politics, Cardwell quickly adds, "But I don't call this politics - not in Pittman Center."
No one is running against him, but if he is not re-elected Cardwell said, "I would need other venues in which to expend my energy. ... I'm a people person, always have been, and if I weren't doing this, I would be doing something else."
There has been so much of "something else" in Cardwell's life that although he hails from the smallest town in Sevier County, most people in Sevier County know him.
Much of his notoriety stems from having spent 34 years as a park ranger for Great Smoky Mountains National Park and having taught at Pittman Center Elementary and High School. He also has served on 17 boards, not counting his church activities. For 31 years he has also delivered Bibles for Gideons International.
To learn about his career as a park ranger, Cardwell must first go back to his years as a child growing up in the Greenbrier area of the Park.
"I was one of nine children, and none of us ever went to the doctor. My mother gathered herbs to make tonics, teas, and poultices, and I learned about plants from her. There was always a tendency in my nature to love nature and music," said Cardwell.
Grinning, Cardwell notes how odd it was that of his siblings, he was the only one interested in nature and history, and the only one that tagged along with his mother.
"She was an outdoor gal - always mending fences or fixing the chicken coop, and I was always with her. I gained my insight, and my love and respect of nature from her," he said, adding that he also gained his love of history and discovering his ancestry from her.
When the Park finally bought his parents' property in the 1940s and the family moved to Pittman Center, Cardwell said he learned the value of recycling from his father, "My father bid on two houses that were being removed from the Park. At that time there was no lumber or nails available; all resources were going into the war effort. So, he bought the houses, we dismantled them, straightened all the nails and re-used the materials to rebuild my parents' house, and build a barn, a smokehouse, an outhouse and a chicken house," he said.
After four years in the Navy, Cardwell got his teaching degree, then taught seventh and eighth grade math, and high school math, history and typing from 1958 to 1961 at Pittman Center Elementary and the high school.
His job as a park ranger came about as a result of his students asking him what was on the Federal Civil Service entrance exam, and because he didn't know, Cardwell took the exam himself. He was surprised to be notified in July 1961 that he was hired as a naturalist to work in the new Sugarlands Visitor Center. At retirement, he worked in the resource education division.
"Oh, those were happy years," said Cardwell of working for the Park. "I've got so many memories. ... The Park was a teaching facility without having to grade papers or deal with the PTA or parent/teacher conferences."
While Cardwell loved teaching, he said, "I never regretted leaving teaching. I was still doing a service to mankind, just on a different level, not to mention it paid more."
In a way, Cardwell is still teaching. Even 11 years after his retirement, he gets calls from Park staff who draw on his 34 years of experience in knowing where to find certain plants.
With excitement, Cardwell realized that July 23 was the anniversary on which he and his wife Faye Huskey Cardwell were baptized in Hills Creek Baptist Church, where they are still members. He counts that, along with his marriage, and having been saved, as the most important moments in his life.
As mayor, Cardwell said the thing of which he is most proud is that since May 2001, Pittman Center has been listed second, behind Boulder, Colo., in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "Dozen Distinctive Destinations in the USA."
Almost from memory Cardwell can quote the Trust's description of the town: "Pittman Center is a community that unites residents behind a vision for the future, enabling them to reap the benefits of tourism without losing what they love about their town."
Although the designation occurred during his term, Cardwell gives credit to the town's residents, saying, "I figure when you get a job to do, do your best, and if there is any credit to be given, let it go to someone else."
* cgrimm@themountainpress.com
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 24 Dec 2007.
A real Christmas
tale ... err, tail
At 77, Pittman Center Mayor Glenn Cardwell recalls many memorable Christmases, but two gifts he will never forget.
"We were a poor family, as all the mountain people here were in the 1930s," said Cardwell. "But, I had a gifted brother, Emert Cardwell, nine years older than I, who learned the craft of carving early on and went on to become a historic carver for the national park. When I was small, he carved a toy animal for me that I treasured more than anything. I also remember that he carved me a pencil from yellow poplar and put a lead in it for me."
Cardwell remembers his mother knitted him a pair of socks. He also recalled Christmas stack cakes and the sweet aroma of his mother's kitchen.
Cardwell's all-time favorite funny gift, however, is one that no one else likely has ever received.
Cardwell retired from the National Park Service, but from 1958 through spring of 1961 he taught at Pittman Center High School.
"I had a favorite seventh-grade student - he was cantankerous, but I think often of the students I had, and he always emerges first in my memory because he was full of pranks. I could write a book about him because he was very funny, even though I reprimanded him many times," said Cardwell.
At Christmas in 1959, all of Cardwell's students brought their teacher gifts, which Cardwell did not plan to open in class. But after a day of being needled by his favorite student to open his gift in front of the class, Cardwell complied.
"He had wrapped up a pig's tail to give me," he said, adding that the entire class was aware of the boy's prank.
Not knowing quite what he should say, Cardwell simply said, "Oh, this is wonderful. I'll have my wife cook it with soup beans tonight."
"And, guess what - I've still got it," he says today. "I found that pig tail in my attic this summer."
-CANDICE GRIMM
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 19 Jan 2008.
Panel discusses leaving the Smokies
By: BEN CANNON Staff Writer
January 19, 2008
Edgar Williamson and Olie Williamson, cousins from the Cosby community, Glenn Cardwell of Pittman Center and Ruth Carr-Miller, who was sitting in for her father Melvin Carr, gathered in the Harp Room at the convention center as part of the "Leavin' Our Home in the Smokies" lecture. The lecture was just one part of the Pigeon Forge's 18th Annual Wilderness Wildlife Week.
On a small stage in front of nearly standing-room-only audience, the four speakers held their audience in thrall with stories of life in the Smokies as the Park became a reality.
Some of the stories, like Edgar Williamson's recounting of how Rooster Town got its name after an entrepreneur's first attempt at a chicken business yielded 97 roosters out of 100 baby chicks, had the room bursting with laughter. Other's, like Olie Williamson's lament of the separation of his family members, brought tears to the people's eyes.
"I think it's good to know where we come from," said Cardwell.
Cardwell began the afternoon by focusing on the history of on the Park's conception. According to Cardwell, the proverbial ball was started rolling by a couple from Knoxville with a simple question: "Why can't we have a national park in the Smokies?"
No one had an answer that was satisfactory, so the lengthy process of declaring a national park began.
"This park could never have been established today if we had waited," said Cardwell.
The speakers covered everything from anecdotes about the Walker sisters to "traditional family business."
"I call moonshine our Irish inheritance," said Cardwell to a laughing audience.
Not every story was quite so jovial. Many of speakers memories of that era have a certain sadness associated with them. As the Park's boundaries expanded, more and more people left as their land was requisitioned.
"The things that seemed to hurt the worst was breaking up of the families," Olie Williamson said with a tear in his eye. "They were never to be together again."
While a heavy price was paid with more than money to make the Park a reality, the speakers were quick to point out they don't love it any less, just a little differently.
"It has become a place we could always go back to," said Carr-Miller.
For the people who lived here as the Park took shape, home is always just a few steps away.
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 22 Dec 2008.
Cardwell, who now serves as mayor of Pittman Center, was born in 1930, the height of the Great Depression and only four years before his family suddenly found itself living inside the bounds of what was then the nation's newest national park.
"We were fortunate to live next to the German doctor and he came over to deliver me on Dec. 24," Cardwell says. "He was a surgeon but he somehow lost one or two fingers, so he became an ear, nose and throat doctor, but he could still deliver babies. He just came over to the house and helped my mom."
The Christmas Eve baby found himself on the younger side of a brood of nine in a family that sometimes struggled, as did many others at the time, to make ends meet.
"People always ask me, "Aren't you sad you were born at Christmas because I bet you don't get as many presents,'" Cardwell says. "We were from a poor family and didn't have a lot of presents anyway, so I just thought everybody came out to celebrate my birthday and that was great."
Though times were tough and there wasn't much to go around on Christmas morning, Cardwell says he always felt like there was more than enough at the holidays.
"We would all hang socks up to be filled; we would try to find the person with the biggest sock and borrow one from them," Cardwell recalls. "Our parents would go to town and get oranges and candy to put in them. My mother was amazing because every year, I don't know how she did it, she would make us all something special and we just loved it."
Beyond his mom's creations, Cardwell says one of his older brothers had a gift for handicrafts and would also produce something for his younger siblings.
"He would whittle us things like a frog or a little man; it was amazing what he could do," Cardwell says. "I remember one time he made a grandfather clock completely out of wood, no metal, just to see if he could do it. He figured out a mechanism to make a clock run without any metal parts and he would wind it up and it was an eight-day clock."
Cardwell started school at the Methodist mission academy at Pittman Center at the age of 7, making the short journey up the East Fork of the Little Pigeon River to the school along with his siblings. With most every family in the area destitute or near it, the children at the school didn't exchange gifts among themselves. Still, they didn't leave the halls of learning empty-handed when Christmas came.
"The folks who started the school had a little good will store up here, too," Cardwell says. "Throughout the year when somebody would donate a toy, they would save it out and then the faculty of the school would give those to us kids. Those were the only not-handmade toys I had. I remember one year I got a little glass truck and I thought that was the neatest thing. I held on to it until I passed it on to one of the kids in our family a few years ago."
As he grew up, Cardwell began to take on some of the work of keeping the family's small, subsistence farm going. He recalls helping to raise the pigs and cows that would often be slaughtered as the holidays approached.
"We'd kill a hog at Thanksgiving and that would usually last us through New Year's," Cardwell says. "My best memories of Christmas growing up are of the smell of all the food being cooked on the days before Christmas filling up our house."
Like many families, Cardwell's kin held on to their land in the national park for as long as they could, but it soon became apparent the family would need to move. After his father purchased several acres of land in the Emerts Cove community, Cardwell helped build a new house on the property.
"Since World War II was going on, you couldn't buy any metal, but there were some old buildings in the park and we would go up there and get the nails out of them, and my brother and I learned how to straighten those nails out and use them again," Cardwell says.
Though the family's home has since been torn down and Cardwell is decades away from those old Smoky Mountain Christmases, he says he still treasures the memories of his first holidays. While there might not have been much in the way of presents, Cardwell says the family always had an abundance in what he believes is the most important thing - love.
"I think the best gift you can give a child is a feeling of being loved and belonging, and we always had that," Cardwell says.
dhodges@themountainpress.com
- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 17 Nov 2016.
December 24, 1930 - November 17, 2016
Resided in Sevierville, TN
Roy "Glenn" Cardwell, age 85 of Pittman Center, passed away Thursday, November 17, 2016. He was born in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park on December 24, 1930. He was preceded in death by his parents Bill and Pearlie Cardwell; brothers Columbus, Vincent, Emert and Jimmie Ray; and sisters Flora, Hazel and Lou.
He is survived by his childhood sweetheart and wife of 63 years Faye; daughter Sandra Yorke and husband Philip of New York; grandson Stephen Mallory and wife Kelly and great-grandson Jamison of Maine; grandson David Novelli of Louisiana; brother Lon; brother-in-law Leon Huskey and wife Nancy of Indiana; and many nieces and nephews.
Glenn served four years in the United States Navy. Afterwards, he completed his education and graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in business. After graduation he taught at Pittman Center High School for three years. He then went to work for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park where he was employed for 34 years as a Park Naturalist. He retired as Supervisor of the Sugarlands Visitor Center. After retiring from the National Park, he became the Mayor of Pittman Center where he served for almost 18 years. He was dedicated to preserving the culture and natural beauty of his community. He wrote two books documenting the history and mountain heritage of Greenbrier and Pittman Center: The Greenbrier Cove Story and A Dream Fulfilled: A Story about Pittman Center. The proceeds from both of these books go toward funding the proposed pavilion at Pittman Center City Hall.
He was a member of Hills Creek Baptist Church for 72 years and a deacon for many of those years. In addition, he was a Gideon for 41 years. Other organizations he was involved in include Christian Ministries in the National Parks, Chairman of Camp Smoky for 25 years, Leadership Sevier, Wilderness Wildlife and the Sevier County Historical Society. He was named as one of "The 100 Most Influential People" in the history of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The museum located in the Pittman Center Elementary School is named "The Glenn Cardwell Heritage Museum" in his honor. He continued to lead many hikes and gave numerous talks on the park and the history of the area throughout his retirement.
Glenn loved life to its fullest. His love for his Lord and His Word, his family, friends, community, and God's creation was extraordinary. He was loved and will be missed by many.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to any of the following in Glenn's memory: Gideons International, 400 Parkway, Sevierville, TN 37862; Pittman Center Town Hall (pavilion fund), 2839 Webbs Creek Road, Sevierville, TN 37876; or Hills Creek Baptist Church (playground fund), 154 Hills Creek Road, Sevierville, TN 37876.
The family will receive friends 4-6:45 PM Monday with funeral service to follow at 7 PM in the West Chapel of Atchley Funeral Home with Rev. Bill Black, Rev. Brian Huff and Rev. Jordan Fox officiating. Interment will be 10 AM Tuesday in Tudor Cemetery with military honors provided by American Legion Post # 104. Online condolences may be made at www.atchleyfuneralhome.com
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 21 Nov 2016.
Community loses Mayor Glenn Cardwell
By JULI NEIL Staff Reporter
Mayor Glenn Cardwell
Curt Habraken/The Mountain Press
PITTMAN CENTER – Park ranger. Naturalist. Mayor. Author. Mentor. Pioneer. Public servant. Inspiration. Sweet soul.
The words used to describe Glenn Cardwell on Friday were as varied as those who spoke them, but one constant emerged: If you met Cardwell even once, if only briefly, you remembered him.
Sevier County residents, elected officials and staffers with Great Smoky Mountains National Park were saddened to learn Friday morning of the passing of Cardwell on Nov. 17.
Born in 1930, Cardwell served for 34 years as a park ranger and naturalist. Though he retired in 1995, Cardwell remained active in park education and preservation efforts. He also served as mayor of Pittman Center, an office he held from 1998 until the time of his death.
One of his legacies is the Glenn Cardwell Heritage Museum, which is located inside Pittman Center Elementary School. Cardwell was instrumental in initiating the museum-inside-a-school and was personally responsible for collecting many of its artifacts. Both he and the museum were honored in 2014 by the East Tennessee Historical Society with the Community History Award. Cardwell was also the author of "The Greenbrier Cove Story" and "A Dream Fulfilled – A Story about Pittman Center."
Cardwell was known throughout the community as a supporter of not only the national park and Pittman Center, but of Sevier County. Several people contacted on Friday by The Mountain Press recalled seeing Cardwell recently at a local function, such as a grand opening or community celebration. "I saw him just not long ago," said Greg Patterson, Sevier County Assistant Mayor. "He was there at (the) Veterans Day (program)."
Patterson and his wife, Wendy, are neighbors of the Cardwell family. Wendy Patterson serves as principal of Pittman Center Elementary School, where Cardwell could often be seen bringing visitors to the museum. "He was a pioneer in so many ways," Greg Patterson said of his friend and neighbor. "Whenever I had the opportunity to hear him speak about 'the good old days,' I would go. He spoke at a Leadership Sevier luncheon about six months ago. It was such a joy to listen to him."
In an August interview with The Mountain Press, Cardwell reflected on his years as a park ranger and naturalist. He shared his memories just a few days before the National Park Service celebrated its 100th anniversary on Aug. 25. Cardwell said that what he remembered most from his time in the park is that it is a highly individual experience for each person who spends time there.
"They come to get married, and they come before they die," Cardwell said. "The park means different things to different people."
Cardwell is survived by wife of 63 years, Faye Cardwell; daughter Sandra Yorke and husband Philip of New York; grandson Stephen Mallory, wife Kelly and great-grandson Jamison of Maine; grandson David Novelli of Louisiana; brother Lon Cardwell; brother-in-law Leon Huskey and wife Nancy of Indiana; many nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends on Monday, Nov. 21, 4-6:45 p.m. at the West Chapel of Atchley Funeral Home, 118 East Main St., Sevierville. Online condolences may be made at www.atchleyfuneralhome.com.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Cardwell's memory to: Gideons International, 400 Parkway, Sevierville, TN 37862; Pittman Center Town Hall Pavilion Fund, 2839 Webbs Creek Road, Sevierville, TN 37876; Hills Creek Baptist Church Playground Fund, 154 Hills Creek Road, Sevierville, TN 37876.
The Glenn Cardwell Heritage Museum is located inside Pittman Center Elementary School, 2455 East Parkway, Gatlinburg. Admission and parking are free. The museum is open weekdays, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Information is available at www.pittmancentertn.com, 865-436-5499 or 865-436-7477.
According to the Pittman Center charter, in the event of the death of the mayor, the vice mayor becomes mayor until the next regular election. Pittman Center alderwoman Judy Tucker said that vice mayor Kevin Howard, who was selected by the five-member board, will serve as mayor. She said that Tucker has held the vice mayor position for several years.
Contact Juli at jneil@themountainpress.com or on Twitter at @NeilWatsonJ.
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