Remembering Harriet Anne Douthirt
Harriet devoted nearly 40 years to early childhood education. She was part of the founding of the Towson University Student Day Care Center (now called the Child Care Center), created during a national movement in the 1970s to make higher education more accessible to women, parents, and working-class families by providing affordable childcare with priority for student parents. Towson University was among the pioneers in higher education in offering a child care center and the idea caught on at schools across the country.
In 1975, Harriet was appointed Director and would go on to lead the center for the next 38 years. “Harriet hired me in 2003, and I worked with her for 10 years until she retired,” says Ilene Grodzinsky, Master Teacher at the Child Care Center. “Once you walked through the doors of the center you became part of her school family. She was a huge mentor, giving me advice when I needed it.”
“Harriet focused on supporting the whole family and celebrated the little wins every day in the classroom”, says Nicole Vasanth, Director of the Child Care Center. “She saw people’s potential and pushed them to value and utilize their own knowledge and experience. She built the school that I fell in love with over 20 years ago and that I fight to sustain and grow every day.”
Memorial gifts can be made to the Towson University Foundation in support of the University Child Care Center.
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