Person:Alphonso Ragland (2)

"Husband of Susie Ragsdale Ragland.


Obituary for Alphonso Ragland Sr. published in the "Dallas Morning News" on April 5, 1953. P. 8.

"Business School Founder, Alphonso Ragland Sr., Dies - Alphonso Ragland Sr., who trained thousands of Dallas men and women for successful business careers, died Saturday in a Dallas hospital at the age of 86. He lived at 5105 Swiss. Ragland was born in Daingerfield. His father Aurelius Ragland, also a native of the Piney Woods county, was the first sheriff of Morris County. All his grandparents settled in the eastern part of Texas when this state was a republic. Ragland was graduated from high school in Daingerfield with the highest grades of his class. He taught in country schools at Rocky Branch and Kellyville for a couple of years, then owned, edited and published the Daingerfield Tidings for two years. Then he attended Baylor University at Waco. Ragland next attended Hill's Business College at Waco, where he became a teacher. During his seven years as a teacher he met and later was married to Miss Susie Ragsdale of Flatonia. After leaving Hill's, Ragland took a job in the General Land Office at Austin and became chief clerk. It was around 1900 that Ragland bought the Metropolitan Business College in Dallas and became its president. For a time he was a director of several banksand insurance companies here, but later dropped these affiliations to devote all his attention to his business school, for which he erected a three-story brick building at Commerce and St. Paul in 1904. This building only recently was razed to allow expansion of the Titche-Goettinger Company. Ragland and his wife worked for forty-five years with students at Metropolitan, which he liked to call 'the school with a reputation.' In the school's early days, Ragland said: 'I have faith-unlimited faith in my school. I know what it is because I have put my conscience, my heart, my hope and my life's best efforts into its making. therefore, I have absolute confidence in the work it is doing to prepare young men and women to win success in life.' After Mrs. Ragland died in 1947, the Metropolitan was sold and Ragland retired. Ragland wrote several textbooks on bookkeeping. He was a member of the Baptist Church from his young manhood and an active worker in it. His membership was at First Baptist, where he formerly was a deacon and president of the board of trustees. Proud of his membership in the Sons of the Republic of Texas, he acquired a substantial library of books on the Lone Star State. He was a member of the Dallas Historical Society. His record for attendance at meetings of the Rotary Club, which he joined many years ago, was outstanding. He also was a charter member of the LionsClub, a long-time member of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and of the Dallas Advertising League, which he helped found. Survivors are a son, Alphonso Ragland Jr.; two daughters, Mrs. Raymond C. McIver and Mrs. Sue Ragland Diggle; four grandchildren and one great-grandchild, all of Dallas. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday in Sparkman-Brand Funeral Chapel, 2115 Ross, with Ragland's pastor, Dr. W. A. Criswell, officiating. Burial will be in Hillcrest Memmorial Park. Pallbearers will be: Alphonso Ragland III, Cruger S. Ragland, Joe B. Ragland, John M. Richardson, J. Tyson McIver, Frank C. Harmon, Norman N. Campbell, J. Robert Ross. Honorary pallbearers will be the board of deacons of the First Baptist Church.'"