More proof that Monongah = quality teaching

Monongah and quality teaching are synonymous.

This goes back to the incredible Mary Turkovich, who taught math, algebra and geometry to hundreds of miners’ children in the 1940s and for several decades after that.

Joyce Lipinski Evans, Class of 1969, is following in the hallowed footsteps of Miss Turkovich.

She was named for the Fairmont State Professional Development School Partnership’s Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Joyce is a super teacher at Jayenne Elementary School on Country Club Road in Fairmont. It is among 17 elementary schools in Marion County. Joyce is married to Donnie Evans, Class of 1969.

Joyce’s presenter was Dr. Carolyn Crislip-Tacy, dean of Fairmont State’s School of Education, Health and Human Performance. While Dr. Crislip-Tacy is a Fairmont West grad, she has Monongah High in his DNA, too. She’s a daughter of Doris Fox Crislip, Class of 1946, and the late Carroll Crislip, Class of 1941.

Joyce is a daughter of Goldie DeFazio Lipinski, Class of 1937. Goldie’s other daughters are Judy Lipinski Cook, Class of 1958; Henrietta Lipinski Hawkins, Class of 1959; and Sandra Lipinski Hawkins, Class of 1962. Judy, a former Maid of Marion chosen from among Marion County high schools yearly and Monongah High prom queen, lives on Pike Street in Monongah, within a block of where I was born in my grandparents' home on Walnut Street (at the Pike intersection). Judy Blocker Kincaid, Class of 1965, and Sandra Ann Tetrick Loretta, Class of 1966, also were chosen Maid of Marion.

Goldie’s sister is Loraine DeFazio Barth, Class of 1951.

Another DeFazio, Johnnie (1924-1975) once owned and operated DeFazio Esso Station, at Bridge and Lyndon streets in Monongah.

The Fairmont Times clipping was mailed to me by my “Monongah Bureau Chief,” Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, who lives in Monongah.

Ramona knows something about quality teaching.

Her daughter, Marcia Michalski Westfall, Class of 1974, of Kilarm, is a super elementary schoolteacher in Marion County when she’s isn’t gallivanting off with her husband, Dave Westfall, Class of 1948, on their Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Electra Glide motorcyle.

Another daughter, the late Mary Frances Michalski Gapen, Class of 1968, who married Rick Gapen, was a teacher at Barrackville Middle School and Monongah Elementary. Hundreds paid their respects to Mary Frances at the funeral home.

Marcia and Dave’s daughter, Amy Westfall Raines, North Marion grad and former Fairmont State cheerleader, is the North Marion cheerleading coach.