Fiftieth Anniversary History

The Beginning Years

In the State of Michigan from the 1930s through the early 1960's, most of the professional development and in-service training of teachers was spearheaded by the Michigan Education Association (MEA). During those years, the MEA sponsored the "Teacher Institute Days." Institutes were two-day in-service programs held throughout the state each fall, with science sectional meetings included. Unfortunately, the science sectional meetings were not always effective in meeting needs of teachers of science.

The Michigan Science Teachers Association (MSTA) was founded on April 26, 1953. George Mallinson is considered to be its founder. Mallinson had a number of experienced science teachers in his graduate classes at Western Michigan University. Some of these individuals formed a "core group" that often discussed the formation of a statewide Science Teachers Association. Subsequently, members of this core group attended various MEA meetings throughout the state in the fall of 1952 and announced plans for such an association. Teachers were informed of an organizational meeting to be held in the spring of 1953. In those days MEA owned and operated a camp near Battle Creek - St. Mary's Lake Camp - that was often used for conferences and meetings. Thus on April 26, 1953, the organizational meeting was held at St. Mary's Lake. Present were several MEA staff members, as well as 36 science teachers from various parts of the state. Frankly, the MEA personnel were not enthusiastic about the formation of such an organization, and even predicted failure within two years. Nevertheless, the science teachers present made the decision to form a statewide association. The Charter Members that voted to establish the Michigan Science Teachers Association included the following individuals:

Gene Blossom	Clark Gates	Wilma Ladyman	Fred Service
Lynford B. Bond	Andrew Gibson	John Landon	Wayne Stafford
Florence Boyntor	T. Gies	William Larkin	Kenneth Summerer
Jacqueline Buck	Alta Gillette	George Mallinson	Edwin Vaughn
Cylena Buckman	Frederick Greene	Walter Marburger	Rober Van Voorhees
Robert Carter	John Hartmann	Margaret Mazwell	Dan Welch
Sidney DeBoer	Floyd Huggett	David Miller	Richard Welch
Robert Dresser	Caroll Jaquette	Edna Pattern	Elizabeth Wood
Dale Fuelling	Chester Koceski	James Pellowe	Kenneth Young