Marguerite Hare Browne High School Senior

Marguerite Hare Browne enjoyed a reputation as strong, wise, and caring, embodying the spirit of The College at Brockport. Peg – as her friends and colleagues knew her – was an innovative educator and contributor to the Brockport community. She graduated from Brockport Central High School and attended college in her hometown, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1944.

Following her graduation, she taught first grade in Wellsville, NY, while working on her master’s degree in education from Columbia University. Armed with her advanced degree, she returned to Brockport as an instructor and a critic teacher in the campus demonstration school. She provided examples and assessments for practice teachers in pre-kindergarten, and later second and third grades.

Always looking for innovative ways to apply her talents, Mrs. Browne took a leave during the 1955-56 school year to serve as an elementary-level demonstration teacher for the Headquarters Army Dependents School in Karlsruhe, Germany. When she returned to Brockport, she received a promotion to assistant professor and embarked on another new experience: educational television.

Mrs. Browne was a pioneer in using television for teaching and for evaluating student teachers. She was an advocate for closed-circuit televised demonstrations, and she was a teacher and resource consultant for the New York State Department of Education’s pilot television programming. In the late 1950s, she and her colleague Donald Nasca co-taught a two part telecast, “Introducing the Nine Planets” on Rochester television station WROC-TV.

She did post-graduate work at Syracuse University in 1959 in television production, and post-graduate work at the University of Rochester in education in 1959. In 1964, she was promoted to associate professor.

In another innovative endeavor, she established the Brockport-Greece Central School District Teaching Center in 1968. The teaching center combined all resources along with the clinical teachers, classroom- supervising teachers, and principals needed to help student teachers learn from experts while honing their teaching skills.

She was involved on campus, serving on the faculty evaluation committee for student teaching from 1960 to 1972 and as treasurer for the Brockport chapter of the International Association for Childhood Education. Professionally and in the community, she was a member of the education honorary society, Delta Kappa Gamma, the Brockport and Western Monroe Historical Societies, the Lakeside Memorial Hospital Twig Association, and the National Association of Teacher Educators.

Perhaps the largest impact Mrs. Browne had on the Brockport campus and community was her dual assignment between 1978 and 1981 when she taught and served as part of the group that established the Brockport Foundation. As special projects coordinator for the Brockport Foundation, she encouraged the creation of scholarships, often doing solicitations, and helped found the emeriti faculty group, which remains active in its support of the College and its members.

Throughout all her professional and civic involvement, Mrs. Browne was a loyal alumna of the College, and she was known as the Grand Dame of the Brockport Normal School and Brockport College alumni. She was inducted into the Brockport Alumni Hall of Heritage in 1981, the year she retired from the faculty. She continued her involvement with the Brockport Foundation until the last years of the 20th century. When she passed away in 2010, Bud Meade, director of human resources emeritus, noted that she was known for her love for the College and especially for her students.

The Marguerite Hare Brown High School Senior Award is the first in the four-scholarship sequence established Mrs. Browne to assist a student through their four years at The College at Brockport, preparing for a career in education. Other scholarships in the sequence include the Fred Dean Award for a sophomore student planning to enter the education profession, the Rose Rock Award for a junior student majoring in education, and the Marguerite Hare Browne Scholarship for a senior student majoring in education.

Applicants for the Marguerite Hare Browne Award must be graduates of a public high school in New York State and accepted for study at The College at Brockport. Applicants also must have recommendations from a school counselor and at least two other professional staff members at their high school. In addition, applicants must demonstrate exemplary high school grades, a record of extracurricular activities and volunteerism, and exhibit a commitment to the profession of teaching.

After receiving the Marguerite Hare Browne High School Senior Award for the first year, the successful applicant is eligible for the Fred Dean Award, Rose Rock Award, and the Marguerite Hare Browne Scholarship in succession.