Elementary education students Dana Mathis and Carol Pearson have been awarded D. Keith Osborn Scholarships for fall semester of 2000.

Mathis, of Cochran, was awarded the scholarship as the department's Outstanding Senior of 2000-01. Pearson, of Athens, received the scholarship as the Outstanding Graduate Student of 2000-01. The $500 scholarships come from a fund established in 1999 by the department to honor their late teaching colleague..

A pioneer in early childhood education, Osborn was a professor of education and child development for 26 years at UGA's College of Education. From 1980 to 1993, he was also graduate coordinator for the department of elementary education. Before coming to UGA, Osborn was one of the first male teachers of young children. He was a faculty member and division chair at the Merrill Palmer Institute from 1952 to 1968.

As a consultant to the U.S. Office of Education in the early 1960s, Osborn served on the committee that planned the Head Start Program and served for a year as assistant director. Later, he was on the planning committee for the Children's Television Workshop, which developed the popular "Sesame Street" program. His service to children continued through his work on the President's Council on Early Childhood Education and the President's Council on Television. The U.S. Commissioner of Education and the director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity also relied on his expertise in early childhood.

Osborn received numerous teaching awards at UGA, including the 1987 Josiah Meigs Award, the university's highest teaching honor. In 1988, he was named Georgia Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He was also a National Silver Medal winner for teaching that same year. The UGA Panhellenic Society presented him with the Outstanding Faculty Award in 1991. The College of Education Faculty Senate Award for Teaching Excellence is now named in his honor.

In 1990, Osborn received the Project Head Start National Award for Outstanding Education as well as the Outstanding Member Award from the Southern Association for Children Under Six.

In a career that spanned more than 40 years, Osborn made more than 600 presentations to professional and non-professional organizations in 49 states and five foreign countries. He authored more than 100 publications that included Discipline and Classroom Management, Cognition in Early Childhood, and Early Childhood Education in Historical Perspective.

The public is invited to honor the memory of D. Keith Osborn through contributions made in his name. Checks should be made payable to:

The UGA Alumni Foundation/D. Keith Osborn Fund

University of Georgia

Department of Elementary Education

427 Aderhold Hall

Athens, Ga. 30602-7122

For additional information regarding this fund, contact Dr. Judith Reiff, head, department of elementary education, at 706/542-4244 or at jreiff@arches.uga.edu.

Thursday, December 7, 2000

Writer: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu

Contact: Judith Reiff, 706/542-4244, jreiff@arches.uga.edu