With her grit and vision, she helped open 60 community schools in Miami
I wish I could remember the last time I spoke with Marjorie Pearlson, known to all as Marge.
I do remember that it wasn’t a business call about the community education that she so loved and fought diligently for so many years. It was just to chat.
I can still hear her loud, raspy-sounding voice with a tinge of urgency. How I loved her boisterous laughter, which made me burst into a good belly laugh.
After I retired, I didn’t hear from Marge too often. That is the way our friendship was. We would go for months, sometimes even a year or two, without hearing a word from each other.
But when we did speak, it was like old times. Marge reminding me of her dedication to education, and reminding me of how we became friends and co-workers for the cause of community education.
Actually, I was only a co-worker with Marge because I was one of the tools she used to get her information in the paper — either as a story or an item in one of my columns. It was always about her fight to open up Miami-Dade County Schools to everyone, at any time.
Marge was born in New York on Feb. 2, 1925. She died July 25, surrounded by her five children and Raymond, her husband of 74 years, in their Pinecrest home. They had met when they were in elementary school. The story of their love and their travels is another story for another time.
I met Marge right after I started as a reporter for the Herald, and loved her kind, friendly spirit. She had heard about community education and it was the fight she needed.
By the time we met, she had already begun her efforts to get community schools in the Miami Dade County School System, a 30-year commitment on her part. By then, community education had found advocates in Florida’s government.
It was through the efforts of Gov. Bob Graham, then a member of the Florida House of Representatives, that the Legislature passed the Florida Community School Act in 1970.
The Graham/Pearlson team was just the fuel Marge needed to fight for her beloved cause, and it was about that time that the first community school program opened at Palmetto Senior High School. It was about that time, too, that Marge called me to tell me about this new concept in public education — community education.
She wanted me to write a story about it. Although we had never met, Marge kept me on the phone for the longest time that day. I made an appointment to interview her, but she was so eager to get the story told, she said she would come to me.
We sat at my desk in the Living Section of the Herald and Marge told me of her plans to get the local government to open up Dade’s schools to every citizen, in every neighborhood.
Her excitement for her pet project grew when Florida Atlantic University opened a Center for Community Education and appointed Dr. Vasil M. “Bill” Kerensky to head the center. Kerensky soon became a staunch supporter of Marge’s efforts in Miami-Dade County.
The idea for community schools spread to other parts of Florida and to other states. Like Marge, I became a believer; community schools weren’t only needed in poor neighborhoods. They were needed in all neighborhoods so people could get an education at night.
These community schools were where countless Blacks, who had to drop out of school for whatever reason, could learn a trade to help better their status in life. It was where immigrant adults could come to learn English, study for citizenship and also learn trades.
In 1976, during America’s bicentennial celebration, the National Community Education Association held its convention at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach; Marge was named general chairperson of the convention.
She proposed that Dec. 2, 1976, be celebrated as a national salute to community education. The salute focused on a symbolic “turning on the lights” in community schools across the nation to enlighten people about the meaning of community education and its future potential.
In 1989, the Miami-Dade Coalition for Community Education was formed and the School Board recognized the importance of designating its network of adult/vocational/technical centers as community education centers. By doing so, offerings were expanded and funding resources were used more effectively.
Marge’s story and her love of education and people earned her many awards.
In 2000, she received the U.S. Department of Education’s John Stanford Education Heroes Award for her work, which included helping to establish 60 community schools in the greater Miami area.
She also received an honorary doctorate degree and Woman of Impact Award. In addition, a street, the Marge Pearlson Way, was named for her in the Pinecrest neighborhood where she lived. It was fitting that Marge would pass away in her home located on the street that was named for her.
In addition to her husband, Marge is survived by her children, Douglas, Richard, Michael, Jimmy, and Judy; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for later this year.
