Marilyn Crosby, 66, of Lexington Park is seeking her second term as an at-large member of the St. Mary’s County Board of Education. She is being challenged by James Tomasic in the November 6 non-partisan election. The following is an interview with Crosby conducted by Bay Net Editor Dick Myers. It was edited slightly for space considerations.
The Bay Net: Tell us a little about yourself?
Marilyn Crosby: I was born in Washington, DC. I lived most of my younger years in Prince George’s County. Then I went to the University of Maryland where I met my husband who was studying to be an engineer. I got a bachelors’ degree in Social Studies and I later on went to get a master’s degree in Special Education. In 1971 we came down here so we have been down here 42 years. He found a job on the base, that’s why I came. At that time I was teaching at Greenbelt Junior High School in Prince George’s County. I only taught there a year. I came down here and I was a teacher at Chopticon High School for a year. After that I had three children because that was the way it was done. At a point during that time I decided to go back to work and I went initially at Leonard Hall Junior Naval Academy; for about nine years I taught there. I taught history, English and phys ed. Leonard Hall was a school where you taught just about anything. I even took charge of the drilling at times. I loved Leonard Hall because we had classes of 15. Some of those people are still my friends. It was a very close school. As a matter of fact the headmaster will be working with me in my election. Then I decided to go back into the public school system. I got my Master’s Degree at that time. At that time also they were not hiring Social Studies teachers unless you had a Physical Education degree. I didn’t feel like getting a Physical Education degree at that time so I thought, “What is needed?” Special Education was what was needed. I always liked to get a job that I liked to do but you always wanted to make sure you could get hired. So I got a Special Ed degree and Mary Blakely who at that time was head of Special Education called me up and said, “Marilyn we have a nice group of children at Green Holly.” So I went there. The names of these children have changed throughout the years. We don’t like to use the name “retarded” anymore, so we use the name “handicapped.” Well these children were severely handicapped. I only had four in my classroom but I also had a para-educator to help me with them. The good thing about that experience was I thought I was always going to teach learning-disabled children. These children, I learned to love them and all the labels that you hear in society, they were all gone. That was my really good experience. I will never forget that experience. Then I wanted to go to Spring Ridge but they didn’t have a place for me there so I went for an interview at Piney Point and I met Dr. Robert Abell. He hired me which was good but he left the next year. I was at Piney Point then for the next 14 years working under Jo Barthelme, who was a former nun, a wonderful principal. Then along came Mr. Bill Lawyer. We didn’t have an assistant principal and I had so many jobs I might as well have been assistant principal. He had me doing everything for him and I f
