Gift from Dorothy Goodwin to support museum education

Former State Rep. Dorothy C. Goodwin, a retired professor of agricultural economics, bequeathed more than $140,000 to the University of Connecticut, her alma mater. She died last June at the age of 92.

The gift, which is unrestricted, will be used to establish the Dorothy C. Goodwin Fund for Teacher Preparation, according to the University of Connecticut Foundation.

During her lifetime, Goodwin generously supported the University and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The fund will support museum programs aimed at improving teacher quality that are consistent with the principles of Teachers for a New Era, an initiative sponsored by the Carnegie Corp. of New York.

“Both Teachers for a New Era and the museum directly serve the needs of UConn students and the youth of the state of Connecticut,” says Douglas Hamilton, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a member of the Teachers for a New Era Leadership Committee.

“With this new endowment, both programs will have a second layer of impact, because they enhance the training and knowledge of the next generation of Connecticut’s teachers.”

The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and the Neag School of Education will collaborate on programs that expand hands-on training for students.

“The new museum experiences will help on many different levels to make the curriculum align more meaningfully with the real-world classroom and informal science settings that these teachers will eventually find themselves in,” says Leanne Harty, museum director.

The new fund adds to a pair of endowments Goodwin set up at UConn during her lifetime: the Dorothy Goodwin Teaching Innovation Fund and the Professor Dorothy C. Goodwin Teaching Institute Endowment Fund.

The endowments reflect Goodwin’s lifelong commitment to public service and education.