College of Education Honors Alumni, Faculty

April 24, 2003 -- Three former faculty and two alumnae will be honored at the University of Wyoming College of Education's inaugural Distinguished Alumni and Former Faculty Recognition Award recognition luncheon Friday, April 25.

Distinguished Alumni Award recipients are Peggy Hitchcock Ransom and Fran Woodmansee Joersz. Distinguished Former Faculty Recognition Award recipients are Myron Basom, the late Clarice Whittenberg and the late Oscar Schwiering.

After graduating from UW in 1949 with a B.A. in elementary education, Ransom began her teaching career at Stanton Elementary School in Laramie. She followed that assignment with teaching positions in Pennsylvania and Indiana from 1952-1960, when she began graduate studies at Ball State University.

Ransom earned M.A. (1961) and Ed.D. (1965) degrees from Ball State before joining that institution's faculty, where she served from 1965 until her retirement in 1996. She is a frequently published expert on reading strategies and a longtime member of the International Reading Association. She has appeared in Who's Who in American Education and Who's Who of Women. Ransom also is a member of the Indiana State Reading Association Hall of Fame and the Indiana Association of Teachers Hall of Fame.

Joersz graduated from UW in 1975 with a B.A. in elementary education, embarking on a distinguished teaching career n elementary, middle and junior high schools. She has served on the faculty of Horizon Junior High School in Bismarck, N.D., teaching seventh grade written and oral communication.

Joersz was the 1991 North Dakota teacher of the year and received the Milken Award and the North Dakota Professional Courage Award in 1994. The latter recognized her efforts to overcome a book banning challenge.

Basom holds an Ed.D. (1965) from the UW College of Education, where he taught educational administration courses for 30 years. The university in 1986 presented to Basom the Hollon Award for Excellence in Off-Campus Teaching.

He played a significant role in shaping the college's principal and superintendent preparation programs. Basom was executive director of the Wyoming Association of School Administrators for 28 years. The College's Basom School Leadership Institute is named for him.

The late Oscar C. Schwiering joined the College of Education faculty in 1925, serving for 29 years on the educational administration faculty. Schwiering oversaw construction of the current Education building during his tenure as dean (1939-1954).

He taught at the college level and served as a principal before coming to Wyoming, where he was Cheyenne High School principal (1912-1916), Douglas superintendent of schools (1916-1919) and Rock Springs superintendent (1919-1925). He died in 1963.

Whittenburg came to Laramie in 1930 to teach at the UW Lab School and served on the UW faculty until retirement in 1963. She taught UW methods courses in arithmetic, children's literature and social studies. The noted historian published "A History of Wyoming's People," a widely used text in fourth grade classrooms across the state.

She earned a B.S. in education from Central Missouri State Teachers College and an M.A. in education from the University of Chicago.

Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2003