Susan Dangel Memorial Fund
The Susan Dangel Memorial Fund
By Joy Hakim
Published in History Matters!
February 2008
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
7100 Baltimore Ave., Ste. 510
College Park, MD 20740
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.
