Paul and Sheila Crouch

Joyce Crouch was born December 25, 1925 in Fentress County, Tennessee. After graduating from York Institute in 1942 as Valedictorian of her class, working several years, and having her first child, she went back to school in 1948. Although she worked part-time, she graduated with highest distinction from Tennessee Technological University, receiving her B.S. degree in secondary education with English as her academic area. In 1959, she received a M.A. degree in curriculum and Instruction from Tennessee Technological University, having been one of three students, and the first female in the initial Master’s Degree program there. She attended the NDEA Institute in English, linguistics, and semantics at George Peabody College for Teachers in 1964, and, in August 1966, earned her Ed.D. degree in Educational Psychology and Guidance from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Crouch began her career in education as an elementary teacher at Fentress County schools in Jamestown, Tennessee, where she taught third, fourth, and fifth grades from 1954 to 1959. From 1959 until 1966, she served as an English teacher and guidance counselor at the Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute in Jamestown, Tennessee. She joined the staff of Appalachian State University in 1967 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. In 1968, she was promoted to associate professor and in 1973 earned the rank of full professor, a position she held until her retirement as professor emerita in 1990. She also served in the Department of Psychology as Chairperson on their Board from 1975 to 1987.

Dr. Crouch was licensed as a practicing psychologist in the state of North Carolina, but considered teaching to be her primary professional responsibility until her retirement from Appalachian State in 1990. At that time she moved back to Fentress County, obtained her Tennessee license for clinical psychology, and continued to practice Psychology until her retirement in 2011.