Soul of 78: Vic Canerday
Retired Biology and Chemistry Instructor
Words by Justin Hunter | Image by Ryan McGill
It has been nearly 53 years since Vic Canerday taught his first batch of chemistry students at Walker College. The year was 1969, and only a month after the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon, a 24-year-old Auburn University graduate with a master’s degree in biology set foot on campus for the very first time.
A Florence, Ala., native, Canerday graduated from Coffee High School in 1963 and completed his bachelor’s degree in biology in 1967 from Florence State Teacher’s College.
He says he was initially led to the teaching profession by his mother, who was a longtime first grade teacher in Marion and Lauderdale counties. “But I don’t think I ever wanted to be a teacher,” Canerday admits. “However, on those high school career assessment tests that show you where your skills lay, much to my dismay, one of the careers they suggested was a teacher.”
After graduating from Auburn, Canerday wrote to five colleges and got a call back from Dr. David Rowland at Walker College in Jasper just two days later. Though he had applied to teach biology, he discovered that the college had already filled the position. Instead, Rowland asked him if he would be interested in teaching chemistry labs. “When I went to interview, Dr. Rowland had a big folder of applications for history and English and about five or six applications for biology in a small folder—but zero applications for chemistry,” he remembers.
Canerday accepted anyway.
Though he was, in his own words, “green and a little shy,” Canerday found his groove at the front of the classroom. He admits teaching chemistry was a little easier because the instructor could talk about the major laws and work through them with illustrations, while biology was more lecture oriented.
Canerday was eventually able to teach in his field of study after eight years, becoming one of the most beloved professors at the college for his humble demeanor and willingness to work with his students. “I thoroughly enjoyed being taught biology by Vic Canerday, even though his class was probably the most challenging class I had in eight years of college education, including my law school classes,” says Al Blanton, owner of Blanton Media Group in Jasper. “Everything he did was first class, and I was a better student because of having Mr. Canerday as an instructor at Walker College.”
There were many reasons why Canerday found richness in his institution and became campus fixture for decades. “Walker College was a great place to work with a lot of academic freedom,” he says. “We were able to choose our textbooks and structure our courses as we thought best—as long as it fit the course description in the college catalog. The people I was most closely associated with, admired, or turned to for advice were Dr. Rowland, Dr. Mott, David Abrams and Sam Murphy. David Abrams was the one I turned to most often. He was my attorney, my CPA, and my friend. Dr. Duane Larson was very well-educated. He had a very broad knowledge in a lot of areas. Bill Amundson and Winfred Sandlin were most beloved instructors. Bill was also a great friend. In May 1978, two days before Walker College graduation, my mobile home burned to the ground. Bill spent many hours that summer helping me rebuild.”
Canerday retired from teaching in August 2005 after 36 years in higher education. Though he grew up in the city, he was always a country boy at heart. His love for biology grew out of his passion for the land.
Now in retirement, Canerday spends time with his hands in the dirt of his 242-acre farm below Montgomery. 78