Taught

Louise K. Smith, a retired Harford County public school kindergarten educator and longtime volunteer, died Aug. 27 at her Havre de Grace home from complications of recent surgery. She was 84. A daughter of an artist and a homemaker, the former Louise Keck was born and raised in Queens, N.Y., and was a 1944 graduate of Andrew Jackson High School in St. Albans, Queens. She earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Queens College in New York City, and a master's degree in reading education from what is now Towson University.

H. Samuel Case, who taught human physiology and exercise science at what is now McDaniel College for four decades, died Aug. 22 of complications from leukemia at Carroll Hospice Center's Dove House in Westminster. The longtime Westminster resident was 70. "I've been here for two years, but I very quickly came to see how much Sam embodied the essence of McDaniel College. His death is such a painful loss, " said Roger Casey, president of the college. "In my speeches to prospective students, I tell them that the faculty is not in your life for just four years, but 40. And I got that from observing Sam," he said.

Margaret H. "Maggie" Rittler, an educator whose lifelong dream was teaching special-education students, died Aug. 3 of an aneurysm while on vacation on Cape Cod. The Cockeysville resident was 44. Mrs. Rittler was stricken while attending a movie and was taken to Cape Cod Hospital in Hynannis, Mass., where she died. The daughter of a military policeman and a registered nurse, Margaret Henry was born and raised in West Milford, N.J., where she graduated in 1986 from St. Dominic Academy.

Cynthia Earl Kerman, a retired Villa Julie College faculty member who wrote biographies of a Quaker economist and a Harlem Renaissance writer, died of pneumonia July 22 at the Glen Meadows retirement community. She was 89 and had lived in Lauraville. Born Cynthia Earl in Srinagar, Kashmir in India, where her father was teaching physical education for the YMCA, she attended the Kodaikanal School. Family members said living in India made a lasting impression on her, and she revisited the country and occasionally prepared Indian meals for her guests when entertaining.

Jeanette Elizabeth Aska, a Baltimore City high school biology and physics teacher, died of lung cancer July 3 at Seasons Hospice at Northwest Hospital. The Owings Mills resident was 60. Born on St. John's, Antigua, she was a 1970 graduate of Charlotte Amalie High School at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She studied at Blackburn College in Illinois and in 1976 she earned a bachelor's degree from Morgan State University. She also had a master's degree in education from Goucher College.

Martha Jane Schneider, a piano teacher and church organist who had been a longtime resident of Cambridge, died June 24 of pneumonia at an assisted-living facility in Clemmons, N.C. She was 92. The daughter of a banker and a homemaker, Martha Jane Geoghegan was born and raised in Cambridge, where she grew up in a home on Oakley Street. After graduating in 1936 from Cambridge High School, she studied for a year at Strayer's Business College in Baltimore and then went to work for Country Trust Co., her father's bank.

The Rev. Gerald "Gerry" Vincent Lardner, a Sulpician priest who taught preaching and later served as a missionary in Africa, died of cancer June 18 at Mercy Medical Center. He was 70 and lived in North Baltimore. Born in Baltimore and raised on Malbrook Road in the Westown section of Catonsville, he attended St. Agnes School. He followed an uncle, the leader of the Sulpician Fathers, in pursuing a religious life. He entered the old St. Charles Seminary in Catonsville as a 13-year-old high school student.

Dr. Evelyn P. Valentine, a veteran Baltimore public school educator who was founder of the Pasteur Center for Strategic Management Ltd., died Thursday of heart disease at her Northeast Baltimore home. She was 77. The daughter of a furniture maker and a homemaker, Evelyn Pasteur was born and raised in Beaufort, N.C., where she graduated from Queen Street High School. She was the eldest of 15 children. She started attending school when she was 4, and entered college at 15. She was 19 when she landed her first teaching job. "I had to hurry and get out of the way because there were so many behind me," she told the old Sunday Sun Magazine in a 1975 interview, explaining that her brothers and sisters who were out of college helped those who were still studying for their degrees.

Archbishop Spalding football coach Mike Whittles, whose inspirational 16-month battle with pancreatic cancer touched many far beyond the Severn school's community, died of the disease Thursday. He was 58. Diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer on Feb. 22, 2011, Whittles continued to coach the Cavaliers, remaining upbeat and confident that he could beat it. "This is the day that I knew was inevitable but didn't want to face," Spalding athletic director and long-time Whittles friend Lee Dove said.

Social studies, a subject that had been demoted in Maryland schools in recent years, will regain some of its past educational stature under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Martin O'Malley. Under the legislation — one of hundreds of bills O'Malley signed into law — high school seniors will have to pass an assessment in government to be able to graduate starting with the Class of 2017. The Maryland State Department of Education dropped the test last year. Advocates said the test was eliminated as the result of a de-emphasis on social studies stemming from passage of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind bill, which threw federal support behind the instruction of reading and math at the expense of other subjects.