Bio: Zille, Orvilla (Retired - 1969)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Zille, Selves, Van Dam

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 6/05/1969

Zille, Orvilla (Retired - 1969)

Mrs. Earl (Orvilla) Zille has retired after 37 years of teaching in elementary schools in and around Neillsville. She was presented with a silver tray by the president of the Neillsville Education Association, Kenneth Van Dam, at a party recently.

The former Orvilla Selves, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Selves, was born on Pleasant Ridge, near Neillsville. She attended Kurth School, Neillsville High School and Neillsville Teacher Training School.

She was married to Earl Zille in 1937, and resumed her teaching two years later. She taught in the Dells Dam, Eaton Center, Kurth and Reed schools until 1948, when she became a teacher of the first grade in the Neillsville School system. She has taught fourth grade for the last seven years.

Mrs. Zille has kept a record of the birthdate of all the children she has taught in the last 21 years. They average about 30 a year. By attending summer school, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education in 1956 at Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point.

Mrs. Zille plans to retire as city engineer in 1970, and they expect to live in Arizona during the winter and return to Clark “County for the summer months.