Chalk Dust Company
In Memoriam
Minerva De Los Santos Mosely


Additional pictures of Minerva Mosely can be accessed in
this PDF file (4MB).
In 1996 Minerva "Honey" Mosely and her husband Richard, together with his brother Dana, founded Chalk Dust Company to offer high quality math programs to the Christian home school community. Always a "people person", Honey conversed over the years with over 25,000 Christian family friends who used Chalk Dust programs.
In 2008 Honey was diagnosed with a virulent form of breast cancer that later turned into bone cancer. In weakness she would often say, "Bear [Richard], read [the Bible] to me" and "Bear, hold me."
Honey was "Born to Eternal Life" on April 28, 2011. In 2010, at her last Home School Book Fair in Arlington Texas, her chipper spirit uplifted all of us. "I'm not worried about what will happen to me. I'm in the Lord's hands."
The above Memoriam to Honey Mosely was printed on the back cover of the program at the Home School Book Fair held May 11 and 12, 2012 at the Arlington Convention Center in Arlington Texas. Thank you Kirk and Beverly McCord.
Honey, we miss your beautiful smile, your friendly hugs and your constant devotion to Christ, your family and your Bear. Life will never be the same without you.
Until we meet again!! Your loving husband Richard, your dad Francisco, sisters Senaida and Elbia, brothers Pedro and Higinio, and the many thousands of Christian homeschool parents and students who knew you.
History
In 1989 Dana Mosely was selected as the video instructor in mathematics for
the College Division of publisher D.C. Heath and Company. At the time
Dana was teaching at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida. The
relationship with D.C. Heath involved contracts to produce video programs
corresponding with college level mathematics textbooks.
Over the next several years many programs were completed and some of them
were designed to remediate students in preparation for College Algebra and
other college math subjects. The content of those courses corresponds almost
exactly with the content of high school courses so the idea to re-purpose the
lower level college video programs and couple them with related textbooks and
solutions guides for homeschoolers emerged and permissions were acquired to
go forward with the idea.
Chalk Dust Company was incorporated in 1994 for the purpose of offering
high quality mathematics instruction on videotape to homeschooled students
and a variety of other users. The first course offered was Algebra II.
Additional courses were added over the next several years and the most recent
was Statistics which joined the product mix in 2011.
Focus
Supporting the effective learning process for the student remains the primary
focus in making decisions concerning Chalk Dust product development. We
feel that the combination of quality DVD instruction, understandable
textbook examples, a solutions guide with step-by-step solutions to problems in
the text, and personal help when needed via telephone or the internet, provide
the most comprehensive and effective distance-learning environment.
Textbooks used in Chalk Dust programs are published by Houghton Mifflin
Company (which purchased D.C. Heath in 1998) and most are authored by
Ron Larson. Houghton Mifflin is one of the leading textbook publishers in the
country and Ron Larson is a "franchise" math author. Those elements coupled
with effective DVD instruction meeting the needs of a variety of learning
styles, as well as personal support when needed, result in high-quality and
remarkably effective learning programs. Houghton Mifflin College Division was purchased by Cengage Learning in May 2008.
We at Chalk Dust are delighted, humbled, and inspired by the strong positive
feedback from many of the thousands of students and parents using Chalk Dust
products.
Operations
While Chalk Dust Company products are produced by Dana Mosely in
Orlando, Florida, they are marketed by his brother, Richard, and Richard's
wife, Minerva, who live in Sugar Land, Texas, just outside Houston. Richard
and Minerva are former employees of Texas Instruments Corporation. Richard
spent 15 years with TI and has a masters degree in business administration
(MBA) from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. His skills are well-suited to head up
the marketing of Chalk Dust programs. Minerva spent 22 years at TI in customer service including liaison with Ford Motor Company for her division.
All Chalk Dust operations are handled close to home, literally. Dana produces
programs in a high-quality, in-home, digital video production studio, while
Richard and Minerva have marketing, business operations, and customer support operations in
theirs. The in-home work environment leads to very long hours but that,
coupled with no outside building expenses, have allowed Chalk Dust to grow
over the years. An added personal benefit is the constant family interaction
which otherwise might not exist to the extent that it does now.
Richard and Minerva travel extensively exhibiting at homeschooling conventions
all over the United States from March through August. During the off-season
they concentrate on building inventory in preparation for the next year.
Looking Forward
Although the primary focus of Chalk Dust decision-making is the student,
attention is turning toward parents and the mechanisms which will benefit them
in the math education process.
In addition, Dana may publish new DVDs as the publisher changes testbook editions.
We have often been asked if we intend to develop programs in other disciplines
using the Chalk Dust model. So far, the problems in terms of expense and
time have been too great to proceed. Then again, next year.....who knows.
Please feel free to share your thoughts with us Dana@ChalkDust.com or
Richard@ChalkDust.com as that is one of the major engines that drive our
business decisions.
Thank you for your interest in Chalk Dust products.