She Remembers Two Stellar Teachers

Hazel English Ferris graduated from the New York State College for Teachers in 1932, in the height of the Great Depression. Over the course of her career, she remembered two professors who had a lasting influence upon her: professors Agnes Futterer of English and George Morill York of commerce.

In their memory she created a gift that would aid current undergraduate students of those subjects. Though a scholarship endowment that bears her name, she funds an award that benefits a student in the Department of English one year and in the School of Business the next.

For a decade, a doctoral student in biology has been aided each year in pursuit of his or her study into the area of developmental biology by the Rachel Lisa Taubman Fellowship. And the parents of Rachel, who died as an infant from complications of prematurity, have a magnanimous tribute in memory of their daughter.

Dr. Edward Taubman '72 and Mrs. (Nancy Horowitz ' 73) Taubman established the fellowship in the late 1980s. "The stipend has helped the University to attract and to keep very good people who have focused on the area of developmental biology," said Joseph Mascarhenas, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and the administrator of the fellowship. "It has become an important resource for the department."

Dr. Taubman is a physician and Mrs. Taubman a high school teacher of English and writing.

Were it not for what was then free tuition at the New York State College for Teachers in the 1920s and '30s, Lillian Slater '25, M.A. '38, and Florence Slater '35 would never have been able to attend college and embark on long, successful teaching careers.

Through a $10,000 bequest in her will, Lillian, who died last year, established a scholarship endowment to benefit University students in the name of both herself and Florence, who died in the late 1980s.