Dorothy G. Hamilton, Ed.D.

Baltimore Sun, June 22, 2006

Columbia Flier, June 29, 2006

Washington Post, June 22, 2006

Dr. Dorothy Gettel Hamilton, a resident of Columbia, Md. since 1974, died on June 19, 2006 at age 77, from complications related to thymoma.

Dr. Hamilton was a noted educator whose 50-year career was dedicated to improving the quality of classroom education for students of all ages and abilities.

She began her teaching career in Baltimore City in 1950, then moved to Baltimore County, where she worked as an elementary school teacher and curriculum coordinator at Carroll Manor, Scotts Branch, Stoneleigh, and Rodgers Forge schools until 1961, when she married C. Edward Hamilton. During 1955-56, she also worked as a religious educator for the Board of American Missions of the United Lutheran Church in America.

After working at home while her son Charles was young, she returned to teaching at Myersville Elementary School in Frederick County from 1965-69, and at Thayer School in Burlington, Vt., from 1969-73. She then worked in Montgomery County from 1973-90, first as a classroom teacher at Whetstone Elementary School in Gathersburg, then in a series of positions -- staff development instructor, training specialist, and curriculum writer -- that allowed her to share her knowledge of effective teaching methods with her professional colleagues in schools throughout the county.

Following her retirement in 1990, she became a consultant to Montgomery County's Program of Assessment Diagnosis and Instruction (PADI), where she developed programs and techniques that helped classroom teachers bring disadvantaged children to the levels needed to take part in programs for the gifted.

Dr. Hamilton was a popular trainer who presented workshops on a variety of educational topics all over the world. From 1989-2000, she led training events sponsored by the University of Vermont and Phi Delta Kappa, a professional association for educators, in the USA, Canada, Japan, the Virgin Islands, Germany, Turkey and China.

She developed a system called Picture Thoughts, which was used by teachers to integrate "art appreciation" into other disciplines by, for example, using a painting as the starting point for a discussion of the science behind the weather portrayed in the image. This program proved popular with teachers at all levels, so Dr. Hamilton authored the book Picture Thoughts: Critical Thinking Through Visual Arts, published in 1989.

Dr. Hamilton won several professional awards, including the 1981 Ohaus Award from the National Science Teachers Association for an innovative science curriculum, and the 1980 Judith Ruchkin Research Award for her dissertation on cooperative learning from the Maryland Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She was named Montgomery County Public Schools' 1987 Outstanding Teacher of the Gifted.

Dr. Hamilton was exposed to non-traditional teaching methods at an early age while attending the Campus Elementary School at what is now Towson University from 1934-40. She graduated from Eastern High School in Baltimore City in 1946, received a Bachelor of Science in Education from Towson University in 1950, a Master of Arts in Educational Supervision and Curriculum from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1959, and a doctorate in Intercultural Education and Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California in 1978.

She was an active member of the Lutheran Church of the Living Word in Columbia, where she had served on the Church Council and numerous committees. She also served on resident committees at the Vantage House retirement community in Columbia, where she had lived since 2004.

Dr. Hamilton was born on July 22, 1928, in Govans, Md., which is now part of Baltimore City. She was married in 1961 to C. Edward Hamilton, who died in 2004. She is survived by one son, Charles E. Hamilton, Jr., of Seattle, and two sisters, Joy Wheeler of Towson, Md., and Jean Reier of York, Pa.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 25 at 2 pm, at the Lutheran Church of the Living Word, in the Meeting House Interfaith Center, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia, Md. No flowers, please. Donations may be made to the church, to the Vantage House Employee Appreciation Fund, or to Hospice of Howard County.