April 1, 2020
Longtime, legendary, and beloved East Central Community College English instructor Ovid Vickers of Decatur spent 40 years on the ECCC campus and taught generations of students to love literature and poetry. He died Monday, March 30, at age 89.
East Central Community College President Dr. Billy Stewart remembered Vickers as enormous part of the foundation on which the success of the college was built.
“I have often said that the success East Central Community College enjoys today is based on the foundation that was built by those men and women—those legends—who came before us, and Ovid Vickers was certainly at the top of that list,” said Stewart. “Mr. Vickers was a true icon on this campus for over 40 years as an instructor, and he remained an indispensable part of our East Central family during his 25 years in retirement. He excelled in the classroom as confirmed by the testimonies of his former students and his numerous teaching honors, and he was an ambassador for this college outside of the classroom, as evidenced by being one of only eight individuals to ever be awarded the college’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Vickers touched the lives of thousands of people in a profound way over his lifetime, mine included, and he will be greatly missed. The thoughts and prayers of the entire East Central Community College family are with his wife, Carol, and the entire Vickers family during this difficult time.”
Vickers grew up in Dodge County, Ga. He was a graduate of George Peabody College for Teachers (now the School of Education of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tenn. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Peabody and later returned to earn a Specialist in Education degree. He taught for one year at Rhine High School in Rhine, Ga., before he was drafted into the service during the Korean War.
Vickers joined the then East Central Junior College faculty in 1955 when he was just 24 years old and would later serve as chair of the English Department for many years. Throughout his career, Vickers was not only a teacher, but was also a published poet, newspaper columnist, public speaker, playwright, practicing folklorist, and a collector of antiques.
He published two books with profits benefiting the East Central Community College Foundation. His first book, The East Central I Knew: A History of East Central Community College, covers the college from its beginning in 1928 through 2013. His second book, Notes in the Margin: A Collection of Columns About East Central Community College, is a collection of essays Vickers pulled from his weekly newspaper columns, which highlight various people, places, and events associated with East Central Community College.
Although recognized as a writer and speaker, Vickers was first and foremost a classroom teacher and was the first recipient of East Central’s Outstanding Instructor of the Year Award in 1982. He received the ECCC Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Upon his retirement, the college honored him with the naming of the Ovid S. Vickers Fine Arts Center.
Vickers remained an integral part of the ECCC campus and Decatur and surrounding communities during his 25 years of retirement.
He is survived by his wife Carol, whom he married in 1961, and his children Nona, Harriet, and Ovid III.
