Great memories of Dr. Irby!
The NIH (the site you shared) was one of the agencies I contacted about the Colleton County doc. They don't have any records of him.

Also, I am sure researchers will be pleased to know that the Arkansas History Commission has done such a great work with archiving (at least some) school records.

Don't know why I've always made the assumption that 'Normal' schools referred to general liberal arts studies. (I guess because I never did my due diligence by simply looking it up.) Thanks for the clarification.

"A normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose was to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name. Most such schools are now called teachers colleges; however, in some places, the term normal school is still used." (wikipedia)