Hawkins County Students Win John Gamble Essay Contest

From left, Sharon Greene, vice president of mortgage lending at Citizens National Bank and president of the Walters State Foundation; students Madison Gadbaw and Jaylynn Zink, and Dr. Saul Reyes, president of Walters State.

Students Also Receive Preference for Scholarship

Two Hawkins County students received iPads for their winning entries in the college’s annual John Gamble Essay Competition.

Madison Gadbaw, who attends Surgoinsville Middle School, and Jaylynn Zink, a student at  Clinch School, will also receive preference for the John A. Gamble Memorial Scholarship should they attend Walters State after high school graduation. Gadbaw is the daughter of Nicole Handley and Andrew Gadbaw. Zink is the granddaughter of Kay Seals. 

The competition and the scholarship were both established in honor of the late John Gamble. A Morristown native, Gamble had successful careers as a newspaper reporter, an aide to a Tennessee governor, and a Hollywood agent and producer. He was also a speechwriter for the late Sen. Herbert Walters, for whom the college is named. Gamble attributed his success to the fact that, as a young boy, he read an entire set of encyclopedias cover to cover. By age 12, he had begun corresponding with over 40 world leaders. The letters were so well written that those corresponding with him did not realize that they were writing to a young boy.

As an adult, Gamble wanted the young people from this area to learn about the world beyond East Tennessee and to contribute to it.  Walters State was chosen to administer an encyclopedia endowment fund. In the beginning, the fund awarded essay winners complete sets of encyclopedias. Now, iPads are awarded so students can access the encyclopedia information and much more.

His brother, Ed Gamble, is a syndicated editorial cartoonist whose work is displayed in five presidential libraries.

The essay contest is held in a different county in the college’s service area each year on a rotating basis.