 OBITUARY
Mary Andrew, a champion for reading literacy methods in N.Z, died
October 29, 2006 at age 79. She leaves behind husband David, age 82, and
grown children Bob, Heather and Don.
She was born Edith Mary Gamlen in the small NZ town of Mangonui. She was the
youngest of four, with her father being from a lineage of English Anglican
clerics and scholars, and her mother from a family whose roots went back to
N.Z. missionary days, pre-Waitangi treaty. She valued education through
her father, and her elder brother the late Rev. Peter Gamlen.
She met and married David at University in Auckland, settling in the
outskirts of Auckland on the edge of Papatoetoe, where Robert, Heather and
Donald were born. In the late 1950’s David’s firm built a new fertilizer
works in Morrinsville, and the family then lived in a company house next to
the works, outside town.
Mary became a part-time school librarian when all three kids were in school,
and in the ‘60s went to
Waikato University and qualified to teach. She
taught in Morrinsville at public and church schools, all the while
accumulating ideas for a reading literacy project that would dominate her
retirement years: Mary did not know how to “retire”! During her professional
life she served on Morrinsville Borough Council and was a big supporter of
the public library.
She was active in SPELD at its
formation, recognizing that children who are not realizing their educational
potential because of various specific learning disabilities just learn
differently.
In the mid '80s she published her book "Reading and Spelling Made Simple"
herself at Arrow Press in Morrinsville with some financial assistance from the
McKenzie Foundation and Jack Ilott in Wellington. Later on she developed
"Simplistikit" linked literacy materials: sight word cards, letter-case,
"buddy book" and video with support from the
Tindall Foundation and N.Z.CER.
Together, these are used by parents one-on-one with children - or can be used by
teachers with adults - so they master the irregularities of the English language.
It is worth acknowledging that her work in reading literacy was thoroughly
grounded in both research and testing: she never quite felt the peer of
other scholars with their Ph.Ds. But if you read her major publication "Reading
and Spelling Made Simple", and check out all the other linked literacy
materials on www.SimplyReading.com
you realize the depth of what she put into it: no other age-appropriate book
explains irregularities of English spelling as well.
Her life's work is continued by the "Mary Andrew Literacy Training Trust":
see their website
www.SimplyReading.com.
She is succeeded in life by her husband and three children, seven
grand-children and nine(!) great-grand children. Her brothers Peter and John
died many years ago, and more recently her sister Marge died, but her best
legacy is the children that she taught.
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