Mary Dell Morrison

She taught mathematics at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, and in 1983 went to the White House to accept a Presidential Award for it. If she taught you, I would like to hear from you.

She was on the mathematics faculty at Columbia High School from at least 1965 until at least 1985, and sponsored the mathematics team. In 1983 she was New Jersey’s mathematics recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, one of 104 teachers honored in the program’s first year.

She taught me to program.

Mary Dell Morrison, from the 1975 Columbia High School yearbook

Why I’m asking

I was a student at Columbia High School in the early 1970s. My name then was Bonnie Sullivan. Miss Morrison taught me FORTRAN on the school’s IBM 1130, and then she hired me. I was a Computer Lab Aide — one of the students she paid to operate that machine for the rest of the school.

I was a miserable and solitary child. Because I ran the computer, students who had never spoken to me began to learn my name and use it. I have wanted to thank her for fifty-three years.

I am writing about her now, and I am trying to find the people she taught.

What I would like to know

If you were her student, or her colleague, or on one of her mathematics teams, I would be glad to hear anything you remember. These are the questions I find myself most wanting answered:

  • What did she teach you, and in what years?
  • Do you remember anything she said or did that has stayed with you?
  • Did anything she did change what you went on to study or to do for a living?
  • Were you a Computer Lab Aide?
  • Do you know what became of her after she left Columbia High School?

Short answers are welcome. So are long ones.

One thing you should know before you write

I am writing a memoir, and a chapter of it is about Miss Morrison. I may want to quote from what people send me.

I will not publish anything you write with your name attached without asking you first. If you would rather tell me something in confidence, say so and I will keep it that way.

Is she living?

I do not know, and I would very much like to.

She was born around 1926 or 1927, which would make her ninety-nine or a hundred now. She moved to Heath Village Retirement Community in Hackettstown in 1999. I can find no death notice for her anywhere. She was a hiker and a cyclist, and rode 3,135 miles in a single year at the age of seventy-two.

If you know whether she is alive, that is the one thing I most want to be told.

How to reach me

Email:

By post:

Bo Laurent
9169 W State St #541
Garden City, ID 83714

If you would rather I telephone you, send me your number by either route and I will call.

What I have found so far

Most of what I know comes from the Maplewood Memorial Library Digital Archive, which holds the News-Record of Maplewood and South Orange from 1915 onward along with the Columbia High School yearbooks.

  • Mathematics faculty, Columbia High School, at least 1965 to at least 1985
  • Listed in The Mirror as “Mary Dell Morrison, M.A.” as early as 1965
  • Sponsor of the Columbia High School Mathematics Team, documented 1982 and 1985
  • Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching, 1983 — New Jersey’s mathematics recipient in the first year of the program, one of 104 teachers honored nationally

I am glad to share more with anyone who is interested.

You can read about my other work on the about page, or reach me through the contact page.