In Memoriam: Frank B. Murray
Our educator preparation community lost one of its strongest advocates for teacher quality on Friday, September 14, when Frank B. Murray passed away after a sudden illness. He was 79.
Frank played a vital role in advancing national accreditation in educator preparation. He was the founding president of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) and served as chair of its board of directors and for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). He also worked closely with AACTE as editor of The Teacher Educator’s Handbook and a leader of the Holmes Partnership. He served in various capacities on the editorial boards of several journals in developmental and educational psychology and was a fellow in the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association.
Frank was H. Rodney Sharp Professor in the School of Education and the Department of Psychology at the University of Delaware, and served as dean of the College of Education between 1979 and 1995. He most recently was the board chair of the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE), where he continued to realize his vision of accreditation.
Many knew Frank as a trusted advisor and mentor and a strong proponent for education. He published nearly 200 articles on child development and teacher education and received several awards and recognition for his work. He was conferred an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1994, and was inducted as one of only 60 living members in the Laureate chapter of Kappa Delta Pi in 2009. He was honored with a festschrift by TEAC, the Award of Merit by St. John’s College in 2012, and a Distinguished Alumni Award by the Johns Hopkins University in 2013.
Frank will be missed, and we will be ever grateful for his contributions to our professional community.
Services will take place in Newark, Delaware, on Saturday, October 27, at 11:00 a.m. For Frank’s full obituary and memorial service details, see this web page.
Tags: AACTE governance, accreditation, membership
