Category Archives: Education

Isabelle Salmon Ross: Settler and Pioneer for PE

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Isabelle Salmon Ross: Settler and pioneer for physical education for women and special education students. Photo credit: BYU Library

Many wonderful teachers were also pioneers in their time. Such is the case of Isabelle Salmon Ross, who was not only a settler in the Utah Territory in the 1800s, but was also a pioneer of physical education courses for women and special education students during her lifetime.

Isabelle Salmon was born on November 1, 1867, in Perry, Utah Territory. Her parents, William Weir Salmon and Margaret Hay Hunter Salmon, had immigrated from Scotland. Isabelle earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education at the University of Utah. She also attended Harvard University. After college, she became a physical education teacher in the public school system in Salt Lake City, at Brigham Young College, and at the Utah State School for the Deaf and the Blind in Ogden, Utah.

Isabelle was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She served her church in the general presidency of the Primary organization. While working in that capacity, Isabelle met and fell in love with fellow Mormon Charles James Ross. On September 29, 1897, the pair married in the Salt Lake Temple. Her husband was from Ogden and was a member of the general board of the Deseret Sunday School Union. He also served for a time as the manager of Ogden Tabernacle Choir.

In her later life, Isabelle suffered from coronary heart disease. Sadly, she passed away on December 28, 1947, in Salt Lake City. She was 80 years old. She is interred at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Margaret Antoinette Clapp: The teacher who won a Pulitzer

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Often talented educators garner accolades of international proportions. Once such educator was Margaret Antoinette Clapp, a high school English teacher and historian from New York City who also happened to be the winner of a Pulitzer prize for biography.

Margaret Clapp was born on April 10, 1910, in East Orange, New Jersey. As a teenager, she enrolled at East Orange High School, where she graduated in 1926. At the time of her high school graduation, she earned a scholarship to Wellesley College, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in History and Economics in 1930. While in college, Margaret was honored as a Wellesley College Scholar for her academic achievements.

Margaret accepted her first teaching position at the prestigious Todhunter School for Girls in Manhattan, New York, where she taught English literature for 12 years. During these years, she enrolled in Columbia University, completing the requirements for her Master’s degree in 1937.

During and after World War II, Margaret taught history at several New York City universities, including City College of New York, Douglass College, Columbia University, and Brooklyn College. Her doctoral dissertation at Columbia drew much praise, and was eventually developed into the biography Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow. John Bigelow was a little-known nineteenth-century politician, editor, reformer, and diplomat. Margaret’s dissertation was developed and eventually published in 1947. The manuscript was named the winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. For her achievement, the talented teacher was featured in a cover story for Time Magazine on October 10, 1949.

When she was 39 years old, Margaret accepted a position as the eighth president of Wellesley College, and she served in this capacity from 1949 until her retirement in 1966. At the time she accepted the position, she was one of only five women who were serving as university presidents. During her tenure, Wellesley’s financial resources and facilities were expanded to a substantial degree, and Margaret earned a reputation as a tireless advocate for careers for women. For her work at Wellesley, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences in 1952. The library at Wellesley is named in her honor.

After leaving Wellesley, Margaret served briefly as administrator of Lady Doak College, a women’s college in Madurai, South India. She was then named as United States cultural attache to India, and eventually became an official of public affairs in the United States Information Agency until her final retirement in 1971.

After returning from India, this amazing chalkboard champion settled in Tyringham, Massachusetts. In her later years, she was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, she passed away on May 3, 1974.

You can read more about this amazing Chalkboard champion at this link: encyclopedia.com.

Visit the cabin once inhabited by author Jack London

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Author and retired educator Terry Lee Marzell visits the cabin once inhabited by celebrated author Jack London while he was living in Alaska. The cabin was disassembled, moved, and rebuilt in Oakland, California. Terry is flanked by her little dog, Kurby, on the right, and the famous wolf statue at left. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

Many teachers lead their students through a study of the excellent novels written by celebrated author Jack London. Novels popular for classroom study include Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Sea Wolf. Teachers might be interested to know that the log cabin once inhabited by London while he was living in Alaska can be visited at two  different locations, one in California and the other in Canada.

Jack London’s original cabin was built on the North Fork of Henderson Creek south of Dawson City, in the heart of Klondike territory, just prior to the Gold Rush of 1898. London abandoned his cabin after the area’s Gold Rush fever faded. The small-scale structure was later discovered by trappers who observed the author’s signature scrawled on the wall.

In 1965, the cabin was dismantled and two replicas were constructed from the original logs. One was reconstructed in Dawson City, a town in the Canadian territory of the Yukon. The other was built in Oakland, California, where it was re-assembled at Jack London Square. Why Oakland? Jack London was born and raised there. Today, visitors can visit the cabin where it sits along Oakland’s waterfront at Jack London Square. There is no fee.

To learn more about the cabin, see this article published by the Jack London Museum written by Canadian historian and columnist Kenneth Spotswood.

Covid claims life of Alabama teacher, coach Leo Davidovich, Jr.

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Special Education teacher and coach Leo Davidovich, Jr., of Odenville, Alabama, succumbed to Covid on Sept. 23, 2o2o. Photo credit: CBS 42.

With sadness, we regret to report that Covid-19 has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator and coach. Leo Davidovich, Jr., a middle school teacher in Odenville, Alabama, sucumbed to the disease on Sept. 23, 2020. He was only 47 years old.

Leo taught special education in a small group setting at Odenville Middle School in the St. Clair County School District. He had a reputation for reaching his students with engaging lessons that emphasized the development of functional life skills. He worked tirelessly to make his lessons applicable to his students, and he strongly believed students should be able to use the skills from his classroom later in life. “Leo was beloved by all his students at OMS,” recalled his wife, Cindy, “because his students knew how much he cared for them and loved them.”

In addition to his classroom responsibilities, Leo served as the Assistant Softball Coach for nearby Drew Middle School. He also coached travel softball and basketball. He was the Founder and Head Coach of the Thunderstruck Softball Team.

Leo was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 28, 1972. He graduated from Mifflinburg Area High School in 1991. Later he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Lycoming College. Lycoming is a nationally-ranked private college located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. During his undergraduate college years, Leo was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) Fraternity. Leo earned his Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.

Leo and his wife also owned a family farm in Lincoln, Alabama. Many of his days off from teaching and coaching were spent working on his farm.

To read more about Leo, click on the story about him at this link to CBS 42.

Olive Mann Isbell taught during the Mexican American War

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Author Terry Lee Marzell shares the remarkable story of Olive Mann Isbell, pioneer teacher who taught her students in a school established in California’s Santa Clara Mission while the Mexican American War raged all around them. Here is a short video that tells a bit more of the story of this remarkable Chalkboard Champion.