Expert educator Margaret Cook always put students first

37-year teacher/administrator inducted in Hall of Fame

Margaret “Beckie” Hall lived in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland during her youth and attended the University of Maryland where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in secondary education in 1949. At the time, there was a need for elementary educators so Beckie joined a program at Towson State College to obtain certification in elementary education over the course of three summers while she was teaching fourth and fifth grades at Old Post Road Elementary School.

After one year at Old Post Road, Beckie was selected to teach at Baldwin Manor, which was an HCPS school for United States soldiers who would come on buses from Aberdeen Proving Ground to the three-building school. The buildings were formerly used as barracks during World War II.

At the same time, Mr. Everett Lee Cook was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1950 where, through mutual friends, he met Beckie Hall, a second year teacher at the old Baldwin Manor Elementary School in Aberdeen. The two were married the next year and Mr. Cook was shipped to Germany a year after that to serve in the military until his return in 1956. Mr. Cook, who was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2006, also taught in HCPS for 22 years after serving in the military for more than a decade and going to college for the first time at age 36.

Baldwin Manor closed in 1953 and Mrs. Cook moved to teach at Aberdeen Elementary School, which was located in the former Aberdeen High School building that same year. She earned her Master’s from the University of Maryland in 1960 and completed an Advanced Graduate Specialist Certificate at the university requiring 30 credits beyond her Master’s in 1965.

Teaching classes sometimes with more than 40 students, Mrs. Cook benefited from excellent principals and developed friendships through coworkers while at Aberdeen Elementary until 1967.

Mrs. Patricia Adams, whose daughter was in Mrs. Cook’s fourth grade class at Jarrettsville Elementary School, nominated her for induction into the HCPS Educator Hall of Fame. “Mrs. Cook placed priority on academic achievement while instilling overall high character traits in her pupils,” said Mrs. Adams. “She cared, really cared, about every child’s strengths and weaknesses.”

She then moved to teach at Hickory Elementary for a year before her last transfer to Jarrettsville Elementary where she served as vice principal and taught part-time until her retirement in 1986 after 37 years of service. She was also a nominee for the 1986 Phoebe Apperson Hearts Outstanding Education Award from the National Parent Teacher Association.

“Mrs. Cook not only taught all morning, but she would keep us all supplied in items that we as a staff needed to complete our tasks,” Helen D. Moore, R.N. said who served as school nurse at Jarrettsville.

The faculty and staff at Jarrettsville Elementary were very close-knit and Beckie warmly remembers the wonderful people she worked with, and the friendships she developed and maintained.

Former Jarrettsville Principal Fred Baker said, “Her everyday good humor and positive attitude often spelled the difference between a good day and average day for her fellow teachers.”

At the age of 81, Mrs. Cook has enjoyed 23 years of retirement and still cherishes many fond memories and genuine friendships from the life she dedicated to Harford County Public Schools. “Back in those days, [the faculty] all seemed to get along so well,” Mrs. Cook said. “We are still very good friends after all those years.”

Her hard work and selfless devotion has led to her induction into the HCPS Educator Hall of Fame as its 142nd member (Monday, May 11th, 6:30 p.m., A.A. Roberty Building).

While she never had her own children, Beckie is a very active person, and enjoys sewing, cross-stitching, traveling, visiting antique shows and reading. Her husband, Everett, who passed away in 2000, retired in 1983 and accompanied Beckie on many traveling trips, locally and throughout the country.