Vote for Branford 2012 Education Hall of Fame Nominees

For the fifteenth consecutive year, Branford’s Education Hall of Fame will honor ten individuals who have made significant contributions to education.  Since its birth in 1998, this organization has taken a broad view of the term “education” as it has recognized individuals whose work has enhanced, expanded and facilitated learning.

Citizens who wish to vote on nominees can do so, Tuesday, January 24, 2012; selections will be made for inductees on this night.  The meeting will be held at the Branford Community House at 7:00 PM.  It is open to all and all who attend may vote.    

The 2011 Hall of Fame inductees were Mark Rabinowitz, Tisko School principal; Kathleen M. Higgins, former Sliney School principal; Joan Callahan, former Sliney School physical education teacher; Theresa Baldino, retired Tisko School teacher; Nicholas Rinaldi, retired Branford High School math teacher and Math Department chairman; Kathleen Boyd, retired Sliney school teacher; and James Petela, Branford High School history teacher. In addition, Alice Malcolm, Sliney School teacher; Thomas Grosh, Indian Neck teacher and principal; and Brian Festa, science educator, humanitarian and social activist were inducted posthumously.

While the Hall of Fame has honored teachers and public school administrators, it has also inducted others.  People like Timothy Blackstone, who gave Branford the Blackstone Library; Joe Trapasso, Branford’s former Recreation Director, who expanded sports competition for women and developed the “Golden Agers Club” which was a forerunner to the community’s senior citizens’ organizations; and the Branford Counseling Center’s Patricia Andriole;  are only a few of the many non-teachers who have been recognized.  Others include Monsignor Cornelius Teulings, the founder of St. Mary School, Peter Borgemeister, an environmental activist, Rev. Timothy Gillett, founder of the Academy on the Green, Janice Gruendel, children’s advocate; and Branford’s Florence Wald, founder of the Hospice Movement in the United States; and so many more.  In the spirit of the African adage, “It takes a whole community to educate a child”, the Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing educators using the broadest sense of the term “education.”

Unlike many halls of fame, Branford’s Educational Hall of Fame does not have an actual area or building.  Instead, the names of inductees are inscribed on a bookplate in the library books the organization donates each year to the Branford Public School libraries. The Hall of Fame has named this process “The Susan Spear School Library Book Project” in honor of a longtime Branford teacher and Branford Board of Education member who developed the concept.  Approximately 890 books for school libraries and have been donated to school libraries and, in a sense, has become a functional, learning based hall of fame in the schools through these books.