Elizabeth Thorn

Identity area

Type of entity

Person

Authorized form of name

Elizabeth Thorn

Parallel form(s) of name

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Other form(s) of name

  • Betty Thorn
  • Elizabeth Ann Thorn

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

1930-2002

History

Elizabeth Thorn was a Professor of Education at Nipissing University and an internationally-renowned Language Arts expert. Born in North Bay in 1930, Thorn received her Ontario Teacher’s Certificate from North Bay Normal School in 1948 and worked as a teacher at Powassan Public School from 1948 to 1959. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958, and subsequently completed her Master of Arts degree (1960) and doctorate (1967) at the University of Chicago. She worked as a Teaching Master at North Bay Teachers’ College from 1960 until 1973 when she joined the Faculty of Education at Nipissing College after the teachers’ college was integrated into it. In 1974 Thorn was tenured and became a Professor of Education, a post she held until her retirement in 1998.

Thorn was an internationally-recognized expert in Language Arts, pioneering new methods and developing many widely-adopted curriculum guidelines for the teaching of reading at the primary level. She contributed greatly to the development of the education program at Nipissing University and established the Nipissing Language Conference, a major gathering of Language Arts educators that was held for over twenty years. She also made major donations to Nipissing University which funded a scholarship and a research chair in literacy and language arts in her name. Thorn received many awards for her contributions to education, including the Ontario Council of Teachers of English’s Teacher of the Year Award (1975), the Order of Ontario (1994), and an honourary Doctor of Education degree from Nipissing University (2002). Elizabeth Thorn died in 2002.

Places

North Bay, Ont.

Legal status

Functions, occupations and activities

Mandates/sources of authority

Internal structures/genealogy

General context

Relationships area

Related entity

Nipissing University (1967-)

Identifier of related entity

NUCCASC-AR0014

Category of relationship

associative

Dates of relationship

1973-1998

Description of relationship

Elizabeth Thorn was a Professor of Education at Nipissing University.

Related entity

Nipissing University. Schulich School of Education (1973-)

Identifier of related entity

NUCCASC-AR0006

Category of relationship

associative

Dates of relationship

1973-1998

Description of relationship

Elizabeth Thorn was a professor in the Faculty of Education at Nipissing University.

Related entity

North Bay Teachers' College (1909-1973)

Identifier of related entity

NUCCASC-AR0005

Category of relationship

associative

Dates of relationship

1960-1973

Description of relationship

Elizabeth Thorn was a Teaching Master at North Bay Teachers' College.

Access points area

Subject access points

Place access points

Occupations

Control area

Authority record identifier

NUCCASC-AR0051

Institution identifier

Nipissing University and Canadore College Archives and Special Collections

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Created April 17, 2015 by Peter Houston

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Jones, Jack. "In Memoriam: Dr. Elizabeth Thorn (1930-2002)." Nipissing Review. Volume 9. Issue 1 (Spring 2003) p. 6.

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