Bernard S. Fortner, 78, Educator -- Rest in Peace

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

Subject: Bernard S. Fortner, 78, Educator

Author:
Washington

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: January 11, 2005 11:19:40 EDT

Bernard Semple Fortner, 78, who taught physical education and driver's education in the Montgomery County school system before retiring in 1984, died Dec. 26 in Howard County General Hospital of complications from coronary artery disease.

During his 30-year career, Dr. Fortner taught physical education, recreation, health, mathematics and driver's ed at schools and elsewhere in Montgomery County and Washington to thousands of students from kindergarten to college level.

He began teaching in Montgomery in 1956 at Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, where he spent the most time. He also traveled to several schools as a resource teacher, teaching other teachers.

Dr. Fortner was born in Washington and graduated from McKinley Technical High School, where he was elected to the National Honor Society, lettered in varsity football and varsity baseball, and served as sports editor of the Techite yearbook. He also was a member of the Glee Club and Double-Quartet, where he excelled with his talent for whistling.

After high school, he served in the Naval Reserve as a seaman second class in World War II from 1945 to 1946. He then graduated magna cum laude from American University in 1950.

Dr. Fortner studied physical education, recreation, and health at the University of Maryland, receiving a master's degree in 1952 and a doctorate in education in 1956. His doctoral dissertation was a developmental study, "A History of the Municipal Recreation Department of the District of Columbia (1790-1954)." He was a member of Phi Kappa Phi.

Dr. Fortner was a substitute teacher in the District before becoming a supervisor at the D.C. Recreation Department. From 1951 to 1956, he organized and administered daily public recreation programs -- such as spelling bees, baseball, softball, swimming, model boatmaking, square-dancing -- at the Phoebe Hearst and Hillcrest recreation centers, among others.

Dr. Fortner was former president of the D.C. Recreation Society and a committee chairman (and mid-Atlantic states representative) for the American Recreation Society.

He wrote articles for the Physical Educator, the American Recreation Society Quarterly and the Bulletin of the D.C. Chapter of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

He lived in Washington until moving to Howard County in 1967.

Survivors include his wife of 37 years, Marilynn Ford Fortner of Highland; two children, Dr. Douglas Commodore Fortner of Fort Wright, Ky., and Terilynn Ella Thomas of Fairfax; and two grandchildren.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]