Gary Lewis Shattuck

Dr. Gary Lewis Shattuck was born February 5, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and died suddenly June 1, 2019, in Agora Hills, California. He is survived by his wife Tommie Elaine Perry Shattuck and his daughter Ruby Elaine Shattuck. He was the son of the late Rear Admiral Charles William Shattuck, SC USNR-R and the late Violet Louise McNair Shattuck of Bonsall, California, formerly of Manhattan Beach, California. Also, Dr. Gary Shattuck is survived by his two brothers Ronald Shattuck of Bonsall, California, (Susanna) and Phillip Shattuck (Ingrid) of Thousand Oaks, California. A private memorial service was planned at Manhattan Beach, California, where Dr. Shattuck graduated from Mira Costa High School in the Class of 1965. Dr. Shattuck was offered four college football scholarships and committed to play for UCLA where he sustained a football career-ending eye injury during his freshman year; but, he remained interested in football serving as assistant football coach on the junior varsity level and on the high school level in California at Mira Costa and in Georgia at Norcross and at Newton, and as well as serving as head football coach at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee. Dr. Shattuck received a BA degree in History with a minor in Geography from UCLA, a MAT degree in Social Studies Education from Piedmont College where he was tapped for Phi Beta Kappa. Also, he took his Ed.S. degree in Instructional Technology from The University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from The University of Georgia: Dissertation, “Understanding School Leaders’ Role in Teachers’ Adoption of Technology Integrated Classroom Practices.” That year, Dr. Shattuck’s dissertation was so highly regarded in academia as seminal research that it was abstracted in conjunction with other articles as part of a collective work provisionally entitled Education and Media Technology Yearbook, Volume 35, 2010, published by Springer Science+Business Media, Incorporated. Dr. Shattuck worked 17 years for the Newton County School System where he served the last 15 years as Director of Technology. During that time, he was a grader for a national examination and certification service. Dr. Shattuck was president of Georgia Association of Managers of Education Information Systems (GAMEIS) 2014-2016, president of Georgia K12 CTO Council 2008-2010, and served as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee, Georgia School Board Association 2008-2010. Previously, Dr. Shattuck had been president of Luchair, Inc., was a member of the Athens Country Club, and had been an honor graduate from the Navy Supply Corps School in Athens where Admiral Shattuck gave the graduation address, had served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War as the Supply Officer aboard the USS William C. Lawe, a destroyer based in Mayport, Florida, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant, JG, deployed to the Middle East, and received an Honorable Discharge. Over the years, a very close family relationship developed from the military days with the family of Captain Roy Burgess. In 1980, UGA History Professor Emeritus Dr. Albert Saye proposed Dr. Shattuck to the Republican National Committee. As a result, Dr. Shattuck became one of four GOP Georgia State Field Officers who were instrumental in helping Ronald Regan take Georgia in the Republican presidential election. In addition to being interested in football throughout his life, some of the other activities he enjoyed were: surfing along the Southern California coast and Mexico on the long boards of Dewey Weber and on the short boards of Greg Noll, beach volleyball, swimming, body surfing, water skiing, wind surfing, scuba diving, canoeing, hiking and camping along the 5,000 foot high California Sierra Madre Mountains and along the 7,000 foot high Georgia and North Carolina sections of the Appalachian Trail, parachuting, jogging, tennis, golf, quail hunting, riding Tennessee Walking horses, and campaigning the Luchair de ar Croir line of AKC registered Irish Setters for the showring and for field trials. Dr. Shattuck had over 500 followers on his social media accounts. As a continuation of his dissertation, Dr. Shattuck was the author of 21 articles, as well as of two short stories “A Desert Mirage” and “Going Home,” of “Surfer Boy,” an autobiographical coming-of-age book, and of two unpublished books on leadership. The first book is an university-level instructional technology textbook entitled Becoming A Future-Ready Leader: Leveraging Eight Strategies to Become More Effective. The premise encompasses an historical look at the leadership which advances instructional technology. For Dr. Shattuck’s ability to contribute to student learning, he credits the leadership of others which was passed on to him and from which he was able to pass on to others. These leaders were at: Mira Costa, especially Principal Carl Fisher, Head Football Coach Bill Cooper, and History teacher Harold Stannard; at Piedmont College, especially Dr. Bob Cummings; at the University of Georgia Department of Instructional Technology, especially Dr. Lloyd Rieber, Dr. Michael Orey, Dr. Stephanie Jones, and Dr. Robert Branch; and at Newton County School System especially Superintendent Dr. Gary Matthews. In addition, it was former Superintendent Dr. Linda Hayden, and Assistant Superintendent Georgette Izen; and at Macon State College Educational Technology Training Center Vickie Rogers. Others were leaders as well; but the above were foremost at fostering in him a visionary approach to teaching which led to his stellar instructional technology career. Of these leaders, in particular it was Superintendent Dr. Gary Matthews whose support and whose encouragement allowed the shared vision of instructional technology to have such a positive effect on student learning as was possible to attain at that time in the Newton County School System. Dr. Matthews allowed Dr. Shattuck to do the job he was gifted enough and talented enough to do. Therefore, it is not only in understanding school leaders’ role in teachers’ adoption of technology integrated classroom practices, but it is also in understanding the administration’s role. It is important to understand the role of an entire technology department as well as that of a technology director and of a technology coordinator. This theory supports Dr. Shattuck’s research that academia acclaimed. This theory reaches the highest level in academics to a Level 1 research university at The University of Georgia in the Department of Instructional Technology. With Dr. Matthew’s understanding of the benefits of instructional technology, Dr. Shattuck was able to advance student learning in Newton County through the use of technology. What made Dr. Matthews’ and Dr. Shattuck’s relationship unique is not only did they appreciate instructional technology, but they were visionaries of instructional technology. Both knew instructional technology was a vehicle for student learning. Also, Dr. Shattuck accomplished their shared goal with technology by assembling at that time what he considered to be the best support staff in the state including network engineers, school technicians, instructional technologists, and media specialists. Some were: network engineers like the multi-talented Scott Thomas whose judgement Dr. Shattuck never questioned, and Brandon Edge and Ross Hendricks; school technicians Mike Howard, Chris Dean, Napoleon Jackson, Jennifer Russell, DeAnna Joiner, Mark Dannaker, Mark Watson, Nicole Beaver, David Johnson, Kelly Smith, and Steven Smith; and instructional technologist Melissa Jackson. Also, with Tab Bell’s support, Dr. Shattuck created a certified media specialist program which was successful enough for the Newton County media specialists to vie for state media specialist of the year and successful enough to be used statewide. Another aspect foremost in the success of instructional technology is a lesser known and an often underappreciated working relationship with vendors. This aspect brings value to instructional technology in a way as no other aspect can bring value. The vendor relationship is an integral part of the success of getting reliable and effective technology into the hands of the students in the schools. Some of these working relationships with representatives of companies range from the door-to-door type sales representative of a new company to the president of a viable nationwide company. In some cases, it was the president of a company just starting out who later could give credit to Dr. Shattuck for helping the company become a multi-million-dollar company. Then, too, it was the president of a viable nationwide company who could give credit to Dr. Shattuck for even more profits. Mainly, this is because if Dr. Shattuck believed that a product would help a student learn, he would promote the product to all his contacts. There were specific vendors with whom he worked as a beta site or as a delta site when a product had what Dr. Shattuck recognized as the potential to precipitate learning. Dr. Matthews knew he was not an expert in technology; but he knew Dr. Shattuck was an expert in technology. So, Dr. Matthews realized he did not have to be an expert to get the best results. He stood back and let the expert do the job he was trained by experts to do. Specific vendors of note to Newton County’s success are: John Tupa of ByteSpeed Computers, Rob and Brian Betzel of Infinity Network Solutions, Tim Beekman of Safari Montage, Jeff Anderson of Audio Enhancement, and Mark Elliott of Promethean. Leaders all, these presidents took an active role with Dr. Shattuck’s direction in helping Newton County’s students have the best technology their companies could offer. It was not just these presidents of companies who worked well for Newton County’s student learning. It was representatives like Greg Knowles, previously of Promethean, who became as close as a brother to Dr. Shattuck allowing each of them to concentrate on the shared goal of student learning which resulted in many creative conversations. This relationship with Greg Knowles was not too unlike the relationship Dr. Shattuck had with Dr. Matthews, for both spanned interrelated topics all based upon the aspects of leadership. Also, it was like Terry Caldwell, previously of Logical Choice, who kept a close working relationship with Dr. Shattuck always fostering opportunities to help students in Newton County and students around the state. Even when vendors changed companies, if the vendor was trusted before the change, the vendor was trusted after the change. Both were dedicated. Dr. Shattuck took great pride in knowing that if he could trust his vendors, the students would benefit. As the former vendor from Promethean, Greg Knowles recently said, “Dr. Shattuck felt responsible for the students, parents, and citizens of Newton County just like he would have been if the kids were his own kids. He was dedicated to his kids and to his schools.” In addition to the vendors, it was to the staff he gave most of the credit. He said he could not have accomplished all he accomplished in bringing Newton into the digital age without his excellent staff. This staff was unsurpassed in their dedication to student learning. Like Dr. Matthews, Dr. Shattuck knew how to let his expert staff do their job. As a result, Dr. Shattuck allowed his staff to reach their potential. Part of being proficient was being job-oriented. It simply was recognized that technology is no respecter of time. Work was completed no matter how many overtime hours and how many sleepless nights it took to get the technology up and running. This is an aspect of technology that administrators outside the technology department may not understand because, often it is said that technology is great when it works. Some seem to take technology for granted until it does not work. Then often it is said by technologists that no one notices when technology is working, only when it is not working. When it is that leadership has a full understanding of instructional technology being of an all-encompassing, ubiquitous nature, then leadership’s goals of student achievement may be reached. Upon hearing of his death, Newton County Superintendent Samantha Fuhrey wrote, “Gary played an instrumental role in the expansion of technology into our schools and classrooms and his work will never be forgotten. Through his efforts, our Technology Department became a model of excellence for others and for that we will be forever grateful.” Dr. Shattuck gaged success in several ways including the results of student competition in the Helen Ruffin Reading Contest and in Dr. Shattuck’s yearly summer intraschool technology expo. It may seem unusual to gage the success of technology on a reading contest; but Dr. Shattuck measured the results. Helen Ruffin was the school librarian from Dekalb County for whom this contest was named. Each year ten books, chosen for consideration for the Georgia Children’s Book Award, were selected to be read by fourth through fifth graders and by sixth through eighth graders who answered trivia questions about the books. At first, most of the entrants were few in number and with few winners. However, it was Dr. Shattuck’s idea to have the technology department become the sponsor. Then, technology was offered for assistance in reading the books and in answering the questions about the books. This is when interest increased and winners became so numerous to the point that busses were needed to transport all the winning students to the next level of competition. Soon, it was not unusual for Newton County to have multiple winners on the highest levels even onto the high school level for which there had been no previous participants. Dr. Shattuck had envisioned that technology would increase retention. These results showed that technology-assisted reading improves student’s retention of knowledge. The other way Dr. Shattuck measured results is with the technology expo. This also was Dr. Shattuck’s idea to have teams of students’, teachers’, and parents’ research of new technologies be offered as ideas to be voted on by everyone in attendance even by any neighbors and friends who dropped by that day. The wining idea was the idea considered to be the most helpful in the student learning process. This idea was financially funded by the local business community for use in the upcoming school year. Each year, the technology expo had more and more participation by students, teachers, parents, community members, and the business community, all taking part during their summer break. Both of these two methods of gaging success for technology to bridge into the community fostered student learning. Dr. Shattuck’s leadership textbook goes into detail in how this was accomplished. He understood that leadership takes into consideration only one thing, success. It is said that success has many fathers; but, failure only one. In leadership, this means that many people help you succeed; and you can blame only yourself if you do not succeed. There are many aspects to success. This Dr. Shattuck knew well; so, he answered his own phone calls twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; he confirmed phone conversations with follow-up emails verifying what he understood to be the issue; and he wrote hand written thank-you notes. Dr. Shattuck used these Level 1, Fortune 500, types of leadership techniques to show that it is not just that level of leadership which can make a contribution to society; but technology directors also can make that contribution to society by fostering student learning. Dr. Shattuck intended to make sure that the students of Newton County benefited from his own research. The second book is entitled Aviation Cadets designed with primary research from conversations with his father, from documentation from his father’s career, as well as from conversations and written communication with his father’s aviation cadet colleagues, all of whom comprised a separate unit in the Navy who were recruited from college campuses to train as pilots without going through the regular military training in order for the Navy to be able to fill the needed complement of pilots capable of taking off from and of landing on ships during WWII. Dr. Shattuck was a cradle Episcopalian. His paternal uncle, The Reverend William Shattuck, was an Episcopal priest. Dr. Shattuck enjoyed attending all three of his uncle’s Sunday services: the first service was a Rite One service; the second service was a deaf service conducted in sign language; and the third service was conducted for indigenous people. Dr. Shattuck’s boyhood friend, who became his life-ling confidant, was The Reverend Bob Cornner. Formerly, Dr. Shattuck attended Emmanuel Episcopal Church where he served on the vestry, was a Sunday School teacher, and played for the Holy Hoopers and for the Holy Hitters. Dr. Shattuck was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Greensboro, Georgia. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, PO Box 93, Greensboro, Georgia 30642. Funeral Director Nicole Hopper was in charge of cremation arrangements at Pierce Brothers Valley Memorial Park Funeral Home at 5600 Lindero Canyon Road, West Lake Village, CA 91362.