{"id":973,"date":"2008-07-02T15:40:16","date_gmt":"2008-07-02T20:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2008\/07\/02\/margaret-early-emeritus-professor-and-unsung-hero-college-access-dies-84\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:15:19","slug":"margaret-early-emeritus-professor-and-unsung-hero-college-access-dies-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2008\/07\/02\/margaret-early-emeritus-professor-and-unsung-hero-college-access-dies-84\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Early, emeritus professor and unsung hero of college access, dies at 84"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Margaret Early, the UF emeritus professor who quietly set up scholarships for inner city kids, died June 28 at her home in Gainesville. She was 84.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Boston University, Early started her education career as a teacher of high school English. She soon matured into a respected scholar on reading, literacy and the teaching of English\u2014beginning a 30-year career at Syracuse University’s School of Education. In 1985, she came to the UF College of Education, where she served as chair of the Department of Instruction and Curriculum.<\/p>\n

Early held a number of prominent positions, serving as president of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and a board member for the International Reading Association (IRA). After her retirement, Early used her own money to begin a college scholarship program for an entire class of sixth-grade students at an inner-city school in Syracuse, N.Y. The first recipients of Early’s scholarship graduated from high school on June 28, a few hours after the retired professor died. Early’s friend Cathy Morsink, a retired UF special education professor, said Early never mentioned the scholarship program to her or many of her other friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe never bragged about what she did,\u201d Morsink said. \u201cShe was just a nice, quiet person who did wonderful things and didn’t tell anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nMargaret Early, the UF emeritus professor who quietly set up scholarships for inner city kids, died June 28 at her home in Gainesville. She was 84.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"

\r\nMargaret Early, the UF emeritus professor who quietly set up scholarships for inner city kids, died June 28 at her home in Gainesville. She was 84.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nA graduate of Boston University, Early started her education career as a teacher of high school English. She soon matured into a respected scholar on reading, literacy and the teaching of English\u2014beginning a 30-year career at Syracuse University's School of Education. In 1985, she came to the UF College of Education, where she served as chair of the Department of Instruction and Curriculum.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n

\r\nEarly\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\nEarly held a number of prominent positions, serving as president of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and a board member for the International Reading Association (IRA). After her retirement, Early used her own money to begin a college scholarship program for an entire class of sixth-grade students at an inner-city school in Syracuse, N.Y. The first recipients of Early's scholarship graduated from high school on June 28, a few hours after the retired professor died. Early's friend Cathy Morsink, a retired UF special education professor, said Early never mentioned the scholarship program to her or many of her other friends.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\u201cShe never bragged about what she did,\u201d Morsink said. \u201cShe was just a nice, quiet person who did wonderful things and didn't tell anyone.\u201d\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nTo read more about Margaret Early, read The Gainesville Sun's<\/i>\r\nstory <\/b>here<\/b><\/a> and the Syracuse Post-Standard <\/i>story <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nMargaret Early, emeritus professor and unsung hero of college access, dies at 84 - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2008\/07\/02\/margaret-early-emeritus-professor-and-unsung-hero-college-access-dies-84\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Margaret Early, emeritus professor and unsung hero of college access, dies at 84\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Margaret Early, the UF emeritus professor who quietly set up scholarships for inner city kids, died June 28 at her home in Gainesville. 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