The John H. Lounsbury Award

The John H. Lounsbury Award is given to a person external to the university who has made an outstanding contribution to the programs or students in the educational preparation unit. The recipient will be given the title of Honorary Faculty Member of the SOE.  The award is named for Dr. John H. Lounsbury, the Father of the Middle School Movement in Georgia and the first dean of the GCSU School of Education.

The following is taken from the Dedication Ceremony of The John H. Lounsbury School of Education, September 28, 1997.

"John H. Lounsbury
"Forty-nine years ago, John Lounsbury began his career as a public school social studies teacher in Wilmington, North Carolina--for an annual salary of $1,800.  He had completed his bachelor's degree at John B. Stetson University and his M.A. at Georgia Peabody College for Teachers after a three-year stint in the Army during World War II.

"While in North Carolina, he was first appointed department chair and then a secondary supervisor.  After completing his doctorate at Peabody, he fulfilled professional assignments at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, and at the University of Florida in Gainesville before coming to G.S.C.W. in 1960 as Chairman of the Division of Teacher Education and Director of Graduate Studies.  Except for a year's leave to work with Teacher Corps in Washington, D.C., he remained at Georgia College until retiring as Dean of the School of Education in 1983.

"Lounsbury, always active professionally in the state and in the nation, continues to offer full-time leadership from his base at GCSU through his position as Editor of Middle School Journal (1976-1990) and Publications Editor for the National Middle School Association (1990-present) as well as through extensive publications and presentations on behalf of young adolescents."

This photo is from the 1950 Hanoverian, the yearbook of New Hanover High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, which was Dr. Lounsbury's first teaching assignment after receiving his master's at Peabody.  This yearbook was dedicated to him along with another teacher at New Hanover High. This honor came in his second year of teaching when he was 24 years old.

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