Amphitheater High School, Class of 1962
Margaret O. Brown
Longtime principal of
Prince Elementary School dies at 97
By Andrea Rivera
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.08.2007
A former teacher and principal in the Amphitheater school district died
last week, but her name will always be associated with Prince
Elementary School. The library at Prince, 125 E. Prince Road, is
named for Margaret O. Brown. She died Oct. 30 at the age of 97. A
visitation and burial were held earlier this week.
As a teacher and principal at Prince, Brown made sure the Christmas
pageant was performed each year for nearly 25 years, said her daughter,
Sidley Greer. "It was magnificent," said Greer, who lives in
Texas. "You couldn't help but enjoy it. The costuming was utterly
fantastic." Sometimes a real baby was used for the role of Jesus,
Greer said.
Brown spent most of her teaching and administrative career in the Amphi
district at Amphitheater Junior High School and Prince Elementary
School.
Mildred Horn, a former PE teacher at Prince, worked with Brown for
about 25 years. "She ruled the roost in a very dignified manner,"
Horn said. "She was loved by the children and the parents." Brown
demanded quality teachers and even fired a couple of teachers while at
Prince.
"She dismissed teachers that were not good educators," Horn said. "In
her day and age, this wasn't done." Born in Czechoslovakia and
raised in Ohio, Brown moved to Tucson in 1943 and married Francis J.
Brown in 1944. Her daughter was born in 1947. Her teaching
career in Ohio and Tucson spanned 47 years. She spent 37 of those
teaching English and Latin to seventh- and eighth-graders at Amphi
Junior High School and working as a teacher and principal at Prince,
where she was principal for 24 years. She retired at the age of 65.
Greer, 60, attended Prince for a year while her mother was principal
and remembers being disciplined. "She gave me a spanking for
stealing a nickel in the first grade," Greer said. "I got to the
principal's office and, of course, she was the principal."
Friends and neighbors recall her devotion to education. "The
school was her first love outside of the home," longtime neighbor Dr.
John Wilson said.
Wilson and his wife, Helen, lived next door to Brown for 54
years. Their daughter, Dr. Peggy Sims, was friends with
Greer. Brown would quiz Sims and encourage her to read and
practice her penmanship. "She would help me with the way I held a
pencil and pen," said Sims, who lives in Texas.
Another neighbor, Libby Grabert, fondly remembers Brown helping her
with math problems when she lived near the Browns as an 8-year-old and
then again when she was 13.
"Mrs. Brown was a very special lady," Grabert said. "The lovely thing
about Mrs. Brown is she helped me with math. I was always afraid of
math. She taught me fractions and division, and multiplication."
Brown also helped Grabert, 64, get involved with the church.
Brown was a member of a St. Frances Cabrini Roman Catholic Church near
North Country Club Road and East Fort Lowell Road for more than 30
years.
Grabert and the Wilsons said living near the Browns was a treat. The
Wilsons and the Browns often traveled together — going to places such
as Disneyland, Alaska, Las Vegas, California and Colorado. Sims,
60, said Brown would buy her birthday and Christmas gifts. She still
has the silver bracelets Brown gave her when she was about 10 or 12.
"Most people today don't have relationships with their neighbors like
that," Sims said. "She treated me just like a daughter."
● Contact reporter Andrea Rivera
at 806-7737 or arivera@azstarnet.com.
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