Rooster Tracks: Stanley Muller, pioneering Oviedo school leader during desegregation

Stanley Timothy Muller, known in Oviedo as S.T. Muller, had a career in education that spanned more than two decades surrounding the end of segregation. Starting as an elementary school principal in 1950 during the era of “colored schools,” S.T. Muller was at the helm when segregated Oviedo Elementary School became Jackson Heights Elementary School, named for Henry Jackson, a local farmer and homesteader.

Stanley Timothy Muller Oviedo — Stanley Timothy Muller was principal of Jackson Heights Elementary School, later Jackson Heights Middle School. His wife, Mae Frances Muller, taught music there. His daughter, Kelley Muller-Smith, said he was known more widely as “Professor Muller.”

S.T. Muller was there when the newly desegregated school, renamed Jackson Heights Middle School, opened in 1967. One of his expressed greatest frustrations was the difficulty he often encountered in trying to secure the “minimum of essentials needed. . . to plan and effectuate the type of educational program [for students] that the [times] demanded.” In the dedication service for Jackson Heights Elementary School in 1961, with the completion of the “plant” which had expanded the school from one building to four, Muller offered a message of hope.

“My sincere prayer is that our efforts here will in due time and in God’s own way, bear the desired fruits as we work together and move forward at the Jackson Heights Elementary School,” S.T. Muller said.

Submitted by Judith Smith, president of Historic Oviedo Colored Schools Museum, Incorporated

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Judith Smith

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