Alumna Displays on Relevance of WCSU Schooling in Her Existence
DANBURY, Connecticut — As she ways the age of 100, Brewster, New York, resident Dorothy Killackey has a ton of heritage to search back on. So, when she listened to Western Connecticut Point out College was celebrating its 120th birthday and was soliciting alumni stories, she felt compelled to access out and share hers.
“I am now 96 decades aged, and have been actively involved in numerous careers and several group activities due to the fact acquiring my M.S. in Science in 1971, as effectively as my Sixth 12 months Specialist Diploma in Counseling in 1980, the two Cum Laude from WCSU,” Killackey wrote. “Since acquiring my Sixth 12 months Expert Diploma, I have made use of my education, my intellect, my self-directed ambition toward essential endeavors, not only to guidance my 4 small children, but to make improvements to my schools’ as nicely as my community’s know-how with a much better examining curriculum.”
Killackey’s WCSU master’s degree came 23 many years following getting her B.A. in Psychology from Barnard College or university at Columbia University in 1948. She earned her Sixth Yr diploma from WCSU at the age of 53.
She was a teacher in New Hampshire General public Faculties in the early 1950s, taught in the Brewster Community Universities from 1966 via 1989, and started to share her awareness in teachers’ workshops in the mid-1970s.
Killackey’s initiatives to expand literacy and appreciation of area historical past have resulted in several accolades and awards through the several years. Among them, Pi Condition of Alpha Omicron Sorority awarded her the Jeannette Johnson Teaching Award (1972), and the Brewster College District named her the Outstanding Elementary Instructor of the Yr in 1974 and 1989.
Her relationship with WCSU remained central to her career, and in 1975-76, Killackey was questioned by then-WCSU Professor Dr. Ruth Allen to existing “An Independent Analyze on Dyslexia” to WCSU Instruction students. In 1979, she obtained a Recognition Award from Allen at the WCSU Honors Convocation, and in the exact yr acquired the Nancy Barrelle Memorial Scholarship to carry on her college scientific tests.
Killackey was initiated into the Phi Delta Kappa Nationwide Educators Fraternity at WCSU for investigate, services and leadership in 1980. In 1982, she been given the Jeannette Johnson Pi State Scholarship Award in New York Point out.
In 1991, Killackey was incorporated in “Who’s Who of American Girls,” and in 1992 she was integrated in “Who’s Who in American Schooling.” She also been given the Delta Kappa Gamma Women’s Sorority Alpha Omicron Chapter Lolobel Hall Scholarship.
Killackey taught in the elementary grades at the John F. Kennedy University in Brewster even though she pursued her graduate degrees at WCSU. As a consequence of her graduate do the job, she was invited by the New York Condition Teachers’ Affiliation to carry out teachers’ workshops, and was also invited to community university districts to share her expertise about “Learning Disabilities, Their Diagnoses and Remediations.”
As the school’s English Liaison, Killackey edited and compiled annually editions of a crafting anthology, showcasing the ideal illustrations of poetry and prose of the school’s learners. She also served as the Teacher’s Union President of her university, and was a member of the St. Lawrence O’Toole School board for two years. For a decade, she taught in the Title I Summer season Faculty Method at the John F. Kennedy College.
Her emphasis on instruction by no means wavered, and she established the Killackey Scholarship for Graduating Brewster Seniors ahead of her retirement. She also funded a producing contest for St. Lawrence O’Toole seventh and eighth graders in advance of leaving instructing for a 12-calendar year genuine estate career that earned her the title of Million Dollar Income Agent quite a few situations.
In her group, Killackey was named Senior Citizen of the Yr in 1999 by the Putnam County Business for the Growing older, in recognition of the 40+ citizens’ biographies she penned. The vast range of local community businesses that have benefitted from her time and talents and have acknowledged the similar with awards are as well a lot of to point out.
Since 2010, Killackey has published bi-weekly columns in The Putnam Situations/Press known as “Musings” and “Afterthoughts.” They are now released and offered on Amazon, along with her book, “Follow the ‘Dot’ (Life’s Route With a 94-yr-previous).”
Killackey claimed, “I believe that my story is evidence that WCSU was an critical backlink in my everyday living, and my education there has benefited a lot of teams of persons, as properly as enriched and encouraged my life’s path.”
