Retiring teacher

To the editor:

Thank you, Phyllis Zorn and the editors of the Marion County Record, for the article of appreciation Feb. 28 for the 35-year teaching career of Mark Meyer.

I am pleased with this story especially because Marion is my birthplace and where I first attended school — from 1945 to 1951 at Bown-Corby and the Hill School.

Bown-Corby has the distinction of being named for two esteemed teachers. They already were of historic importance when I was a student, although Miss Corby still was a substitute teacher.

Through the years, I have often reflected on the naming of the school.

Around the country, U.S. presidents and foremost American authors are quite legitimately honored in the names of public schools, but it is rarer to honor those who taught in the community.

The story about Mark Meyer’s career and the prominence of Miss Bown and Miss Corby in the naming of the valley school are linked over time, showing Marion to be a place where education and educators are valued.

It is an event to recall the career of a long-serving teacher. I clearly remember my teachers from the 1940s — among them, Julia Campbell, Maude Thompson and Pauline Best.

Long past high school, college, graduate school, and many life events, they still stand out. They, and their lessons at Bown-Corby and the Hill School, are clear memories.

Mark Meyer’s story is good news, and the telling of it is good news, especially at a time when, in some places, good teachers go unappreciated, and their value is questioned.

Margaret Williams Norton
River Forest, Illinois