Norton City Schools Guidance Counselor, UVA Wise Alumna Receives 40th Annual William P. Kanto Memorial Award

Melissa Cook, a Norton City Schools counselor who has served in education for more than 30 years, received the William P. Kanto Memorial Award at the 40th annual Forum on Education held at UVA Wise Tuesday evening.

Cook, a John I. Burton High School guidance counselor and 1989 graduate of UVA Wise, is the 31st recipient of the award, which recognizes a local citizen leader who has advanced the cause of education in Wise County. It’s named after William P. Kanto Sr., who played a vital role in education in the region, serving on both the Norton City and Wise County school boards.

“When my mom and my husband walked in here, I knew something was strange,” Cook said. “I am just at a loss for words. I am blessed to have this as a profession. I am blessed to have worked with you and in all the different counties. It’s been my pleasure to serve kids throughout Southwest Virginia in my 33 years. God’s still writing my story.”

About 100 regional educators and administrators attended the annual event at UVA Wise’s David J. Prior Convocation Center. Special guests included UVA Wise Chancellor Donna P. Henry, MECC President Kristen Westover, Norton City Schools Superintendent Gina Wohlford and Wise County Schools Superintendent Mike Goforth.

“Melissa doesn’t meet a stranger, and students will tell you she has a heart for being a good listener and for ‘shooting it straight’ in the kindest of ways just when they need it the most. Very seldom will you find her without a welcoming smile, comforting spirit and 'come on in, let’s talk awhile’ attitude when you enter the halls of John I. Burton,” Wohlford said.

Cook is currently serving her ninth year at John I. Burton High School, where she was the 2021 Teacher of the Year. She has served in Southwest Virginia as a school counselor in Wise County and Norton City Schools for 23 years.

She’s known as “a colleague who develops genuine relationships and wants the best for others.” 

“While she is a guidance counselor for students, many colleagues may tell you they think of her as a life coach for students and adults alike,” Wohlford said. 

Cook earned her bachelor’s degree in education at then-Clinch Valley College and obtained her master’s degree at Virginia Tech in 1991.

Her educational career began in Franklin County, where she served five years as an elementary counselor. In 1996, Cook came back to Southwest Virginia to work in Wise County at J.J. Kelly High School until 2003 and then at St. Paul Elementary from 2003 to 2010. 

The Russell County native then returned home to serve as a counselor for six years at Castlewood Elementary and Castlewood High School.

Today, at Norton City Schools, Cook holds individual career scheduling sessions with every senior and attends many extracurricular school events.

“Her visibility and relationships within the school community are limitless,” Wohlford said. “She endeavors to go the extra mile for the betterment of community, cares for the success of every student she serves and strives to be a friend to those she meets along the way, which exemplifies the William P. Kanto Memorial Award.”

Dr. William P. “Bill” Kanto Jr. presented the award named for his father to Cook and shared its significance. 

“Education had always opened doors for him (Kanto Sr.) and so he wanted to be involved in education because he wanted to help doors open for others just as they had for him,” Kanto Jr. said.

As a child in 1914, Kanto Sr. immigrated to the U.S. from now Serbia, quickly learned English and attended public school through the eighth grade. He obtained his high school equivalency diploma during night school while working in steel mills. When the Great Depression struck, he went to college and graduated from North Carolina State University with honors. Kanto Sr. then served in World War II and returned to his pre-war role as the manager of the Town of Norton, now a city.

“He was a member of the greatest generation—that generation that survived two world wars and a depression and made this country into what it was. I don’t want to demean what my father did but there were a lot of Bill Kantos spattered around this country and they helped make it into the powerhouse it was after World War II and the educational colossus it is today,” Kanto Jr. said. “You folks have to continue that tradition because it is through our educational program that we have been able to achieve and the fruits of that educational program are in this room.”

Keynote speaker Marion “Moe” Smith, a 1973 Clinch Valley College graduate, shared what his own educational journey meant to him and his career as an educator for 34 years. 

“I had good teachers all the way. I had teachers that cared about their students and rose the bar and expected us to do well,” Smith said. “We understood the importance of education.”

He played basketball in college, where he was exposed to a wide range of educational and cultural experiences and got his first taste of teaching as a tutor helping student athletes. 

Smith started his professional career as a Wise County kindergarten teacher, later became a Virginia corrections youth and adult educator and eventually taught fifth grade for 11 years for Richmond City Schools.

Smith, a former City of Richmond Teacher of the Year, told the audience that teachers face a range of difficulties and demands in today’s classrooms in the U.S. and abroad.

“Teachers make the difference,” Smith said. “The current challenges that teachers have to compete with—technologies and gadgets and all the things that will be a distraction from your voice and intelligence in the classroom—are real. You have to be the motivator and the one that gives them courage to keep on keeping on.” 

At UVA Wise, Smith has continued this commitment to education by establishing the Marion and Lucille Smith Memorial Scholarship in 2016 and in 2022, the Crockett Hall Unity Scholarship Fund with two former classmates.