This week’s Project 100+ memory comes from Elizabeth Bunce Daly.  On December 16, 1941, days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was born in Morristown, New Jersey.  At the time, her father, Lester Bunce, was working as a junior high school teacher at Summit High School.  Her mother, Elizabeth Accurso Bunce, was from a northern New Jersey family that lived near Summit.  When Elizabeth was very young, they moved to southern New Jersey where Lester taught at Clayton High School.  In 1945, Lester joined the faculty at Glassboro State College where his father, Edgar Bunce, was the President.  The family moved to 42 Columbia Avenue in Pitman, New Jersey.  One or more of the family would live in that house for the next six decades.  Shortly after they moved to Pitman, Lester and Elizabeth had another girl, Marguerite, in 1946.  Three years later, in 1949, Wilma, the third child, was born.  Elizabeth graduated from Pitman High School in 1960.  She then studied secondary education at Glassboro State College with majors in history and English, graduating in 1964.  Two weeks after graduating, she got married to a medical student at Temple University named Thomas Daly.  She took a job teaching English at Clearview Regional High School.  Later, they moved to Philadelphia, and she taught English at Roxborough High School.  In 1971, after she became a mother to her first child, Matthew, she didn’t teach or work outside of the home for quite a long time.  During this time, she gave birth to two more children, Michael and Allison.  At age 50, her husband passed away.  Soon after, she tried to reenter the work force, but she had a hard time finding a job as a teacher because jobs in English and history were hard to get at the time.  She ended up working in clerical roles at various universities, including a memorable stint with lovely colleagues at Arcadia University.  For thirteen years, she worked in the President’s Office at Cabrini University.  After leaving this position, she did various part-time jobs, eventually retiring for good at age 73.  In her retirement, she visits her children, enjoys cooking, gardening, going to the movies, and spending time with her friends, often on short trips to various interesting sites.

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Growing up with my parents, it was impossible to imagine that one would not go to college.  Like my grandfather, grandmother, and father, I always wanted to be a teacher, which my family considered to be a noble profession.  I never considered any college other than Glassboro State College.  The great advantage was that I could commute from our home in Pitman.  Tuition was not very expensive then, but I seem to think that we might have gotten some support for our father being on the faculty.

I always wanted to teach high school, so secondary education was the natural choice over elementary education.  Among the several majors that one could pair with secondary education, I chose to major in English and history.  I loved reading and did so from an early age, especially novels.  My favorites were John Steinbeck and William Faulkner.  I loved going to school.

I still remember Freshmen orientation.  We had to wear these silly beanies.  We all accepted it, even though it was sort of a very light form of hazing.  I can remember making very good friends with other commuters.  We used to meet at this place we called “the Chat,” which was a type of snack bar.  I have such pleasant memories of talking and studying with my fellow commuters in between classes.  I remember a homecoming parade. I think that the commuters put together a float, and I remember being on it with my good friends.

I remember many of the social studies faculty, but I remember most of them because of my father.  I know that I had several of them as professors, but I can’t now remember which ones I had for classes and which ones I knew only through my father.  It has just been too many years.  What I do remember is that I got an excellent education and felt very prepared to teach history, even though I ended up teaching English once I graduated.  The only year that I actually taught history was my year of student teaching at Clearview Regional High School.

I remember Nathan Carb very well, and he was my favorite professor.  It is hard to put into words why I and so many others liked Professor Carb so much.  He had such charm and wit, and he just drew all of us into his orbit.  My favorite writers were Americans like Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Edna Ferber, and Mark Twain.  However, when it came time for me to choose for my senior project, I chose the Romantic poets because I wanted to study with Professor Carb.  I also had courses with Edward Wolfe, David Lloyd, and Terry Donahue.  I remember Fred Lowe as well.  He was a very distinguished professor with a great voice.  I loved the English Department, and they prepared me so well for my career as a teacher.

I had a wonderful education at Glassboro State College.  I feel I was just so lucky.  I believe that I came into college with great advantages, as I had such a wonderful family and a great education in the Pitman schools.  My fortune continued at GSC where I made lifelong friends and had such wonderful and impactful faculty as Dr. Carb.  My mother and I came back to campus in 2011 for his retirement, and it was such a great honor to share that moment with him.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100+,” an ongoing collection of memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff that began as part of the celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 and Project 100+ entries on the Web:  https://www.rowan.edu/ric-edelman-college/departments/history/alumni/