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2001 Hall of Fame Inductees Celebrate Careers of Achievement
November 2001 — As a sell-out crowd gathered
in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria, the 2001 AEP Hall of Fame induction
ceremonies got underway. Many in attendance noted the unsinkable
spirit of the post-Sept. 11 city — and compared it to the
unstoppable spirit of educational publishing, as embodied by the
three Hall of Fame inductees:
- "Mini Page" editor and publisher Betty Debnam.
- Scholastic chairman, president & CEO Dick Robinson.
- Berkery Noyes & Co. managing Director Marlowe Teig.
"The Hall of Fame attracts the best of the best,"
said Kathy Hurley, NetSchool Corp.'s vice president of marketing,
in her opening remarks. "Like New York, it inspires us with
heroes and role models we're proud to call our own. It's built on
vision, daring, spirit, character, determination, and good, old-fashioned
chutzpah. These are the heroes and role models whose life work has
changed education and educational publishing forever."
Charlene Gaynor, AEP's executive director, introduced
the master of ceremonies — Walt Disney's 2000 Teacher of the
Year Ron Clark — as another kind of role model. She described
a hands-on approach to learning with his students in a small, rural
district. "He visited every student's home on his own to talk
with them and their parents," Gaynor said. "And none of
his incoming students had passed the fourth grade test. But after
one year, 24 out of 27 passed."
Clark called on Martha Youngblood to present her
friend, Betty Debnam, the editor and publisher of the "Mini
Page."
"You can't imagine the things we've done to
get a 'Mini Page' story. We've flown the Goodyear blimp, we went
on a complete tour of a turkey farm, and inside the panda cages
at a zoo," Youngblood recalled. "She really showed me
that a little Southern gal could do what she wanted to ... And the
true rewards are meeting a child or visiting a classroom that uses
the 'Mini Page.' "
After accepting her honors, Debnam thanked her family,
mentors, syndicate, editors, staff, newspapers, and readers. "By
presenting me with this honor, you have made this for me a better
... a much better life," she said, quoting the closing line
her father had used in his newspaper columns.
Current Hall of Fame member Allan Raymond of Teaching
K-8 introduced his friend, Dick Robinson, Scholastic Corp.'s chairman,
president & CEO, and spoke of one writer's view of Scholastic's
new headquarters. "I toured the building. I admired its functional
beauty, and was in awe when I saw the impressive auditorium,"
Raymond said. "But this New York Times critic wrote: 'Admirers
believe the Scholastic building will become landmark in its own
right.' Scholastic is obviously on a roll."
Robinson accepted his Hall of Fame plaque and acknowledged
his debt to his associates at Scholastic, and then turned to his
early encounters with AEP, formerly know as the Educational
Press Association. "My introduction to AEP was 35 years ago,
when the original business of AEP members was educational journalism,"
he explained. "There's no tougher business than educational
journalism, and no business that takes quite so long to get started,
or is quite so perilous financially. It took a long time and tremendous
work to establish the name of Scholastic and that of Weekly Reader
in the minds of students, teachers, and eventually, parents."
To the crowd gathered to honor him, Robinson offered
his take on educational journalism. "It requires stamina, initiative,
the ability to get inside teachers' and children's hearts and heads,
and endless commitment," he said. "If your goal is to
build a better future, a better society, this is a great vehicle
to do it. But if you want to have fame and fortune, you should find
another path, for revenues are hard to come by and almost never
cover all the needs you're trying to fill."
Robinson read a letter from his father, M.R. "Robbie"
Robinson, who founded Scholastic Publishing in 1920 in his Pittsburgh
hometown, with a magazine covering high school sports. "Whatever
the future holds, I hope you'll never forget the standards tried
to uphold," the note concluded.
The trio of Leanna Landmann of TIME for Kids, Linda
Meeks of Meeks Heit, and Joe Berkery, president of Berkery, Noyes
& Co., got together for a touching and humorous presentation
on Marlowe Teig, Berkery Noyes & Co. managing director. After
several mentions of Teig's cowboy boots and Meeks' infamous "10
Reasons to Hire Marlowe," Berkery presented the Hall of Fame
honors to Teig.
Teig thanked his family, all the people in educational
publishing who once were teachers, and all the mentors who helped
him along the way, taught him, and allowed him to do his job.
"Teaching underlies so much of your enterprise,"
Teig said to the audience. "Teachers are the ultimate optimists
— they believe in the perfectibility of humans." Finally,
he cited "my boss Joe: he taught me you can achieve whatever
you can visualize. I accept this honor in the name all my great
teachers who taught me so much." |
