Chris Spraggins, a successful educator and coach who was the Muscogee County School District 2006 Teacher of the Year and a Georgia state finalist in 2008, has died.
Spraggins died Friday morning at home in Phenix City while battling Alzheimer’s disease, daughter Caroline McCaleb told the Ledger-Enquirer. He was 70.
His obituary is pending, but funeral arrangements are set. Visitation is Wednesday from 6-8 p.m., and the service is Thursday at 2 p.m., both at Striffler-Hamby Mortuary in Phenix City.
Spraggins taught chemistry and biology for 40 years before retiring in 2016. He coached baseball and golf. The list of local schools where he worked spans the Bi-City area: Columbus High School, Chattahoochee Valley Community College, Troy University, Smiths Station High School and St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School.
The comments on his Facebook page after McCaleb announced his death show his positive influence, such as:
“Your dad was one of my favorite teachers at Pacelli,” wrote Jo Anna Funderburk. “I hope you find comfort in knowing he had a profound impact on all who were blessed to know him.”
“Your Dad was one of my favorite teachers at Pacelli,” wrote Anne-Marie Pujol.
“Your father was such a wonderful and caring person and teacher,” wrote Tracey Lester Burke.
“Coach Spraggins was a teacher blueprint for my 26 year career,” wrote Kerry Meade Blank. “Being able to be FB friends and see him as a human has been a gift. No one loved his family more.”
MCSD superintendent David Lewis told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “Dr. Spraggins was an outstanding professional educator and coach. On behalf of his many MCSD colleagues, I extend my deepest condolences to his family and friends, and hope they take solace in knowing that his legacy lives on through the generations of students he impacted.”
Why Chris Spraggins didn’t attend the gala to receive his Muscogee County Teacher of the Year award
One of the reasons Spraggins was named the MCSD 2006 Teacher of the Year is the same reason he didn’t attend that year’s Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation gala to receive the award.
Spraggins was in Texas for the second day of a 10-day trip to the Johnson Space Center. He and colleagues Luther Richardson and Gail Sinkule were preparing ride aboard NASA’s C-9 aircraft to test their students’ experiment about the effects of space tumbling on satellites.
Their experiment was one of several that won a national competition for the right to fly on what’s known as the “Weightless Wonder” or the “Vomit Comet.” Minors aren’t allowed to fly on the plane, but the Columbus High students benefited from their teachers sharing the learning. And that impressed the foundation’s selection committee members when they met Spraggins as he brought to his interview a box full of his students’ projects.
”He is incredibly proud of the work his students do, and he wanted to share that with us,” Helen Johnson, the selection committee’s chairwoman and vice president of team and community services at Columbus Bank & Trust, said then. “We were greatly impressed with his passionate enthusiasm for teaching and his dedication to his students.
“Chris has a true entrepreneurial streak — a characteristic you don’t normally see a lot of in the teaching profession — but it’s evident when Chris refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer. If he thinks it’s good and productive for students, he’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
Another selection committee member, then-Columbus Councilor Julius Hunter, said Spraggins is “able to have his students buy into the idea that learning is a wonderful journey. One comes away with the feeling that his students are to be envied.”
Foundation chairwoman Teddie Ussery said then, “This is a teacher who will go to any lengths — even out of this world — to make learning challenging and interesting for his students.”
Spraggins wrote in his application, “I have been rewarded daily from students who are not only trying hard but who are also having fun in my classroom.”
More background about Chris Spraggins
After graduating in 1971 from Alleghany High School in Covington, Virginia, Spraggins earned four degrees from Auburn University in science education: bachelor’s in 1977, master’s in 1979, specialist’s in 1981 and doctorate in 1984. He received certfifcation from the Education Leadership Endorsement Program at Troy University in 2001.
Before he became an educator, Spraggins was assistant sports editor at the Covington Virginian, where he also wrote obituaries.
Spraggins was named the 2016 Ledger-Enquirer All-Bi-City Girls Golf Coach of the Year. In his final season as the program’s head coach at Columbus High School, he led the Blue Devils to a second-place finish in the Georgia High School Association Class 5A state tournament.
In 2014, Spraggins led the program to the Class 4A state championship after finishing as the runner-up in 2013.
“I’m on top of the world,” Spraggins told the Augusta Chronicle then. “I’ve coached a lot of sports, and this is my first state championship. It’s special.”
Spraggins started Pacelli’s baseball program in 1982. He developed the program into a perennial GHSA Class A contender, reaching the state championship round in 1991.
“Chris Spraggins had a profound impact on the St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School community,” Jennifer Sillitto, the school’s communications director wrote to the L-E in an email. “His dedication over 24 years as a teacher, coach, and school administrator touched many lives. The outpouring of support and shared memories from alumni is a testament to the positive influence he had on both students and colleagues. We’d like to express our condolences to his family during this time.”
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