Elizabeth H (Howard) Royful

My mother, Elizabeth Howard Royful was born on March 5th, 1927 in Salida, South Carolina. She was the daughter of Deacon Willie and Lula Howard.

In 1945, she graduated high school second in her class. She went on to obtain a B.A. in home economics at South Carolina State College in 1949. Later that year, she began her teaching career in Bluffton, South Carolina. Two years later, she would meet my father, Shad Royful. On New Year's day in 1955, they were married at New York’s city hall. In 1960, she became employed as a dietician at the St. Michaels Hospital in Newark. Five years later, she returned to the classroom, teaching at the Eastside high school in Paterson, New Jersey. She would be employed there for 27 years.
In 1974, she founded the St. Paul Youth Educational Aide Scholarship. Over the next 50 years, it recipients would include a future Essex County prosecutor, a Montclair middle school principal, a two time Olympic athlete and a Tony award winning Broadway actor,  just to name a few. She retired from the public schools in 1991. However, her involvement in education was far from over. That Fall she would establish St. Paul’s first after school activity. It was called S.T.E.P., the Student To Excel Program.

To be very succinct, my mother had three passions in life: her family, education and her faith. I think her life was very well lived.
The Royful family: Terry (son),

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