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Louise O'Rourke, Valley Stream educator, dies

BY DEBORAH S. MORRIS | deborah.morris@newsday.com

April 29, 2008

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Louise O'Rourke, a former teacher and principal in the Valley Stream school district for three decades, died last Thursday at her home in Stuart, Fla., of natural causes. She was 91.

Influenced by her mother, who once ran a one-room school upstate, O'Rourke dedicated her life to building communities through education, said her daughter, Maureen Murphy, acting dean of Hofstra's School of Education and Allied Human Services.

"She had such a generous spirit," said Murphy, of Sea Cliff. "She taught a generation of children and mentored a generation of teachers."

Born in upstate Whitesboro on Feb. 15, 1917, O'Rourke was the second of five children born to Louis and Anna Jones Sawner.

After graduating in 1936 from Cortland Normal School, the precursor to SUNY Cortland, she worked as a teacher in upstate Scotia, but eventually landed a teaching position in 1937 in the Freeport school district, teaching first grade.

Around that time she met her future husband, Bernard J. O'Rourke. They married in December 1938 and settled in East Rockaway, where they raised their three children. Bernard O'Rourke died in 2005.

In 1947, Louise O'Rourke started teaching first grade in the Valley Stream school district, eventually becoming a reading specialist.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Hofstra University 1951, a master's degree in foundations in 1953, and a professional diploma in reading in 1957 from Columbia University's Teachers College.

O'Rourke had begun her doctoral studies but put those aspirations aside in 1957 when the Valley Stream school board asked her to be the principal of the Franklin Avenue School.

"She had marvelous communication skills," Murphy said. "I think they felt she could make great connections with the community as a principal."

She retired in 1978.

Murphy said her mother was president of the Nassau County Principals Association, served on the advisory board of Channel 21 and on the Nassau County PTA council. O'Rourke was a longtime member of the Zonta Club, a women's business and professional service organization.

In addition to her daughter Maureen, she is survived by sons Michael O'Rourke of Hartsdale, N.Y., and Peter O'Rourke of Newark, Del.; sisters Marian Farley and Helen Sawner, both of Whitesboro; two grandchildren and two great-grandsons.

A wake will be today at Macken's Mortuary, 52 Clinton Ave., Rockville Centre from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. A Mass will be celebrated tomorrow at 10 a.m. in St. Ignatius Martyr Church, 721 W. Broadway, Long Beach.