The
Susan Dangel Memorial Fund
by Joy Hakim
Published in History Matters!
February 2008 Edition
Some years ago, a missive arrived from Johns Hopkins
informing me that educators there had created teaching
materials to use with my books, A History of US.
Would I like to see their work, it asked. Of course I
answered, "yes." But I was totally unprepared for what they
sent. It was an astonishing work--comprehensive,
intelligent, imaginative--hundreds of pages done by a
teaching team led by Susan Dangel.
I soon met Susan and found myself not only in the presence
of a true teacher, but of a rare human being. She was just
plain nice, as well as bright and witty. Not long after
that, I sat at an NCHE conference and watched Susan, and
her friend and colleague, Maria Garriott, model a history
lesson. A master teacher, sitting next to me, whispered,
"That's the best I've ever seen."
Susan Dangel died unexpectedly on December 30, 2007. Many
of you knew her through her participation in Teaching
American History grants. I'm told that she was the
"most-often-requested" of the outstanding presenters in the
NCHE stable. You can continue to enjoy her work on the web;
she created a terrific American history website:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus.
Susan's family, husband Tim, son Andrew, and
daughter-in-law Jennifer, have asked us to honor Susan's
memory through an NCHE memorial fund that will support
teachers as scholars: allowing teachers the opportunity to
study, research, and disseminate their work. That seems
wonderfully appropriate.
So I hope you will join with me in remembering Susan, and
at the same time encourage teacher scholarship, by
contributing to the NCHE fund in her memory.
Contributions to the Susan Dangel Memorial Fund may
be mailed to:
National Council for History Education
Susan Dangel Memorial Fund
26915 Westwood Road, Ste. B-2
Westlake, OH 44145
All contributions are tax deductible, and receipts will be
mailed to all donors. For more information, please contact
the National Council for History Education at 440-835-1776.
