They may not know it yet, but McGill’s student teachers are getting a big boost from a kindred spirit.
The late Mary Marsh, DipEd’42, a Grade 1 teacher at Rosedale School in Montreal for most of her career, has left over $4.8 million in her will to support students in the Faculty of Education through a suite of awards – an investment that couldn’t have come at a better time for a profession deeply marked by the pandemic.
“She said to me more than once that her greatest pleasure in life was giving,” says Marsh’s great-nephew Rob Groulx, adding that his great-aunt focused much of her generosity on future generations of teachers. “That was what she was about,” says Groulx.
Affectionately known by her friends and family as Marie, Marsh established three awards at McGill in 2009, known as the Walter A. and K. Mary Marsh Bursaries, Scholarships and Fellowships in the Faculty of Education. At the time, her $337,000 donation in honour of her late husband was one of the largest in the Faculty’s history.
Groulx says he called McGill to deliver the good news about his great-aunt’s multimillion-dollar bequest on October 5, which he later discovered was International Teachers Day. When asked if he had planned it this way, Rob responded, “No, but I know somebody that did – Aunt Marie.”
The majority of Marsh’s legacy gift will be split evenly between her three existing awards, resulting in an exponential increase in the amount of needs-based and merit-based funding available to future educators at McGill. According to Groulx, who is one of the liquidators of the estate, this means that many more undergraduate and graduate students will receive financial support every year and the amounts awarded will be much larger – in some cases, five times larger.
Another portion of Marsh’s estate was used to establish a new set of awards named after her parents-in-law, Muriel H. and Harold A. Marsh, and to provide funding for students working on inclusive education projects.
"A gift of this magnitude in support of teacher training is almost unheard of," says Dilson Rassier, Dean of the Faculty of Education. "Taken together, these awards are really about improving access to the program and building excellence in teaching for years to come. I am so grateful to Mary Marsh and her family for their extraordinary commitment to McGill's student teachers."
A lover of books, bridge and piano music, Marsh also enjoyed having a laugh at McGill’s Leacock Luncheon, which she attended every year. She is seen here (front row, in green) at the 2013 Luncheon.
A personal connection with students
All told, Marsh gave over $5.1 million to the Faculty of Education. Her friends and family are adamant that she never wanted accolades or attention for her philanthropy, but she loved interacting with her beneficiaries at annual scholarship receptions hosted by the Faculty of Education.
“That was one of the highlights of her year – meeting the students and talking to them. She was always so impressed with the quality of the students that were in Education at McGill,” says Nancy Ingram, one of Marsh’s closest friends.
Groulx says that his great-aunt saved every single thank you letter she had received from her award recipients since 2009. She was also known to keep in touch with her beneficiaries and was always delighted to get updates from them as they finished their studies and began their careers.
Jade Cera Guy received funding from the Walter A. and K. Mary Marsh Scholarships throughout her BEd studies and remembers getting to chat with Marsh at more than one of these receptions.
“She had this genuinely happy demeanour, just happy to be there. I remember being surprised that there were so many recipients at the reception and impressed that she was so generous,” says Cera Guy, who is now a teacher with the Riverside School Board on the South Shore of Montreal.
At these events, Marsh would share her own experiences with her beneficiaries and tell stories about her time in the classroom – conversations that really stuck with Cera Guy as she was deciding what to do next.
“Her comments about how students’ needs have changed since she was a teacher was one of the reasons I decided to do a master’s in educational psychology. I wanted to make sure that I would be prepared for today’s classroom,” says Cera Guy, who completed her MEd at McGill in 2016.
She explains that scholarships like the one she received offer a sense of validation and “motivate you to continue to learn and grow as a student and later on as a professional.” And there is something extra special about receiving help from another teacher, she adds.
“I think that aside from the practical help, these kinds of scholarships and bursaries serve as an example of the spirit many teachers have on a daily basis,” she says. “The spirit of wanting to promote the welfare of others takes this from being a profession to being a vocation, and I think Mrs. Marsh was an example of that.”
Marsh with Jade Cera Guy (back row, second from left) and other award beneficiaries at the 2012 Education scholarship reception.
Teacher, friend, philanthropist
“She wouldn’t stand for any guff,” laughs Ingram, when asked what kind of teacher Marsh was.
Jim Wyant, who was one of Marsh’s first grade pupils at Rosedale School in the early 1950s, remembers this well.
“If a child was misbehaving, she was very adept at shutting them down with a withering stare,” says Wyant. But this would rarely happen because Marsh’s demeanour “made her very effective in getting her small charges off on the right foot with the basics of education.”
“She was especially nice to those of us who had a challenge to overcome, in my case a cast on my leg. Since I couldn't go out into the schoolyard at recess, she and her friend, Miss Pollock, would sit with me inside the school so I wouldn't get too lonely,” says Wyant, who became good friends with Marsh much later in life.
“She was generous to a fault, it was unbelievable,” says Ingram, who was always astounded by her friend’s eagerness to help people in need.
Lisa Starr, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education and the director of the Office of Internships and Student Affairs, says that Marsh’s long career as an educator meant that she understood where her contributions to the Faculty would be “best placed”.
In particular, Marsh’s commitment to supporting entrance bursaries was crucial because “students who are going to make fantastic teachers don’t always have the financial means to go to university,” explains Starr.
Moving education forward
“I think teachers have always needed to be open and responsive to change but the pandemic just really pushed that to its limits,” says Groulx’s wife Andrea, who is a retired teacher.
Ingram, who also has a strong connection to the profession as a former high school finance administrator, agrees that teachers have had to be “multi-tasking magicians” this year, and many parents have developed a newfound respect for the role they play in our society.
Acknowledging that the pandemic has been extremely challenging for teachers, Starr says that it has also created an incredible opportunity for innovation. By encouraging top students and researchers to come to McGill, she believes that Marsh’s fellowships and scholarships will help “expand on people’s willingness and ability to engage in change.”
“One of the things this gift does is it allows us to attract and reward the students who are really committed to the quality of education, and that includes a shifting vision of what education can and should be, particularly in the current climate,” says Starr. “The potential for us to really move education forward is incredible.”
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