Dr. Gertrude M. Clarke
Students throughout America are incredibly lucky to be taught by some of the most brilliant educators that our country has to offer. One of these is Gertrude M. Clarke, a high school science teacher who has earned recognition in the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.
In 1954, Gertrude earned her Bachelor’s degree from Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She also completed courses in radiology at Rutgers University; electronics courses at the RCA Institute; chemistry and physics at Seton Hall University; and courses in atomic, nuclear, and solid waste physics at the Yale University Graduate School. By 1987 the talented educator had earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers University.
In the high school classroom, Gertrude taught courses in basic science, physics, chemistry, and environmental science at Chatham High School. Chatham is a public institution located in Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey. While teaching there, she also designed an Advanced Placement course in nucleonics, a class that focused on aspects of nuclear physics.
For her excellent work in the classroom, Princeton University recognized her with Distinguished Secondary School Teaching in the State of New Jersey in 1978. In 1981, she garnered the Citation for Distinguished Service to Science Education Award from The National Science Teachers Association. In 1985, she was named a finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching.
Gertrude keenly wanted K-12 students in New Jersey to be excited about science, and to recognize the relevance of science, mathematics, computer science, and technology in their lives. To achieve this goal, she founded the New Jersey Business, Industry, and Science Education Consortium. She served as the consortium’s executive director from 1981 to 1999. In addition, she served for 16 years on the Board of Trustees for the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame (NJIHF). Now retired, Gertrude herself became an inductee into the NJIHF in 2011.
To read more about the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame, click on this link: NJinvent.org.
