By Annette Walker

The Florida Pitt Waller K-8 School in Green Valley Ranch, named after the woman who helped break racial barriers in public education in the Denver public schools, was dedicated in mid-October.
Born in Tuskegee, Ala., Waller was a young child when she came to Colorado with her parents and sister. She attended Denver public schools, and earned her bachelors and masters degrees with honors from the University of Northern Colorado (then known as Greeley State Teachers College).
When Waller graduated in 1930, Denver public schools did not hire African American teachers. In order to pursue her professional goals, she had to relocate to Okmulgee, Okla., where she taught high school English for several years, before returning to Denver during the Depression to work in nonprofessional positions.
In the early 1940s, the Denver school system commenced hiring African American teachers, and Waller began teaching third grade at Whittier Elementary School, where she had once been a student. For 20 years, she was a classroom teacher, as well as the first African American school librarian. In addition to Whittier, she worked at Columbine, Gilpin, Barrett and Force elementary schools. In the early 1960s, she was appointed the first African American educational coordinator, a position that involved staff development and the supervision of new teachers. In the mid-1960s Waller was appointed principal of Washington Park Elementary School, whose student body was primarily white.
Florida Pitt Waller met an untimely death in May, 1968.
Active in both professional and community organizations, Waller was a member of the National Education Association, the Colorado Education Association, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, the Denver Teachers’ Club, the NAACP, the Urban League, the Glenarm YMCA, and the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA. She was also a charter member of the Denver undergraduate and graduate chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority as well as the local chapter of Jack and Jill, Inc., a national family organization.

Editor’s note : Waller was married to Wade Waller, a native Coloradan. The couple had two daughters: Jane Waller Pigford, a retired Denver Public Schools principal and Diane Waller Jones, a retired speech pathologist. There are three grandchildren: Kaarin Pgiford of Denver, Tony Pigford of Florida and Tiffany Ward of California.