41-year teaching legacy will live on at USF

Set a goal. Such advice from exercise gurus, motivational speakers and financial consultants isn't new-age philosophy. Evelyn McKillop, a 1933 Sioux Falls College graduate, has been doing it for 94 years.

"You need a goal," McKillop says surrounded by her paintings and crocheting at Sioux Falls Trail Ridge Retirement Community. "Know what you want to do, and do everything you can to achieve it."

McKillop adopted this philosophy while pursuing a college education amid financial hardship. A former principal paid her initial year's tuition, and a former Sunday school superintendent paid her second year's fees. Living at home and working at Woolworth's, she afforded her textbooks.

She continued pursuing her teaching dream at a one-room school house.

"I made $45 a month, paid $12 for room and board and rode home in a horse-drawn buggy with the kids," McKillop laughs. "They stood in back and let me have the seat!"

For the next 40 years, McKillop held the reins as a second grade teacher at Hawthorne and Horace Mann. During this time she achieved more goals, earning a bachelor's degree, paying back the principal and Sunday school leader and providing for her mother. She also survived cancer, loss of a kidney and a brain aneurism that kept her in a coma for five weeks.

Tired after 41 years and wanting to spend time with her mom, McKillop retired early in 1974, making an $18,000 salary.

"I saved and lived modestly," McKillop says. "My banker told me, ‘Evelyn, you just retire and enjoy yourself.'"

So she has, continuing to set goals of painting, swimming and volunteering, last year knitting 135 children's stocking caps for the Salvation Army.

"They call me the miracle girl," McKillop jokes. "I believe God has a purpose for me. There is something He wants me to do or I wouldn't still be here."

Higher education is often the foundation for a successful life. McKillop is proof. She's never forgotten her former principal and Sunday school superintendent's generosity. Because of them, she's achieved her dreams. Because of McKillop, young people for generations to come will achieve theirs.