B E TH A N Y Magazine
FACU LT Y & S TA FF
Polly Browne called to eternal home BY LANCE SCHWARTZ • CHIEF COMMUNICATION OFFICER
In December 2020, Dr. Polly Browne (Education) was called home to her Savior after a multi-year battle with cancer. Polly faithfully served the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) for over 35 years as a Christian Day School teacher, as well as a professor of education at Bethany Lutheran College. She also gave of her time as a representative on the ELS Board for Lutheran Schools, where she offered insights on teacher candidates to the Committee. Polly's passion for both sharing the gospel of Christ and teaching students to be strong, independent thinkers and learners was clearly demonstrated during her decades of work as a devoted educator. The early years of Polly's career were dedicated to serving students as a classroom teacher in situations teaching Kindergarten through the eighth grade. She served multi-grade settings at schools in Minnesota and Washington, teaching all subjects from math to social studies to physical education. And while Polly was an excellent multi-subject instructor, she was most passionate for teaching the saving power of the gospel in religion classes and in reading classes. This passion for reading and literacy education led her to earn a master of arts in reading program at Pacific
Lutheran University in 1990 and her PhD from Capella University in 2009. After teaching for nearly twenty years in Christian Day Schools, Polly joined the Bethany faculty instructing pre-service teachers in the Education Department. She was instrumental in helping to establish the Education Department, where she also taught courses in classroom management, fine arts, health and PE, linguistics, literacy, mathematics, and social studies for over a decade. She also supervised student teachers. Her dedication and integrity were a perfect fit for Bethany's mission—She built strong, mentoring, relationships with her students while sharing the power of literacy and its impact on successful lives in the world, and most importantly the student's ability to read and absorb the Holy Scripture. Polly's remarkable influence and ability to equip her education students with strong literacy skills can be seen in public and parochial schools across the nation. Polly Browne in one of her education classes.
Photos by David Norris
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