Marguerite Hare Browne Scholarship
Established by gifts from Marguerite Hare Browne and from her friends and colleagues to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Marguerite Hare Brown High School Senior Award, the Marguerite Hare Browne Scholarship at The College at Brockport is the fourth and final in the Marguerite Hare Browne sequence of scholarships.
These scholarships, which are awarded by the MHB Professional Education Awards & Scholarships Committee, begin with the Marguerite Hare Browne High School Senior Award, continue with the Fred Dean Award for a second-year student, provide the Rose R. Rock Scholarship for a third-year student, and conclude with this scholarship for the fourth year.
Marguerite Hare Browne embodied 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 the College, 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.
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 a new venture: educational television. She pioneered Brockport’s use of television for teaching and for evaluating student teachers.
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 1968, she established the Brockport-Greece Central School District Teaching Center. This teaching center combined all resources along with the clinical, classroom, and supervising teachers, and principals needed to help student teachers learn from experts while honing their teaching skills.
She was a member of the Brockport chapter of the International Association for Childhood Education and 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 Foundation, she encouraged the creation of scholarships, often doing solicitations, and she 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. After retiring 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 Browne Scholarship continues support for the recipient of the Marguerite Hare Browne sequence of scholarships. The recipient of this scholarship will have already received the Marguerite Hare Brown High School Senior Award, the Fred Dean Award, and the Rose R. Rock Scholarship and continues to plan for a career in education while demonstrating outstanding academic ability, leadership qualities, and the potential for success in education.