Edith Marjorie Harrod Award
Edith served as President of the Illinois Speech Association in 1966, and was a member of the Illinois Board of Education for five years. She taught Drama and English at Eureka High School from 1943 to 1951. She taught Drama at Pekin Community High School from 1951 to 1971. She was an Associate Professor of Creative Arts at Illinois Central College where she taught Speech and Drama until her death in 1976. At Illinois Central College she created an interdisciplinary course in the humanities including art, drama, music and philosophy. She received her B.A. degree from Eureka College in 1943, and her M.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1949. She completed additional graduate study at Northwestern University in Evanston and the University of Minnesota. In 1961, she was awarded the John Hay Fellowship in Humanities. She attended symposia on theater at Stratford, Ontario, Canada, in 1965, 1966 and 1968, studying with Tyrone Guthrie, who helped establish the Shakespeare Festival there, and who founded the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. She was director of Broadway Theater League and Cornstock Theater. She directed plays for Cornstock Theater and at Illinois Central College directed Readers' Theater and Plays for Living. The Harrod award is in recognition of distinguished service to the Association and outstanding achievement in the profession.
Past Edith Marjorie Harrod Award Winners
1978 Philip Decker, Richard Hunsaker, William E. Sanders
1979 Mina Halliday
1980 No award given
1981 Maxine Joyce
1982 L.E. Norton
1983 Earl Davis
1984 Marvin Kleinau
1985 John Duffin
1986 Jerry Mathis
1987 Philip Gray
1988 Barry Kautz
1989 E. Neal Claussen
1990 Paul Haywood
1991 John Davis
1992 Marjorie Risser
1993 James Jewell
1994 Connie Link, Heyworth High School
1995 Joseph Rust
1996 Thomas B. McClain
1997 Morris Snively, Belleville East High School
1998 Robert Neuleib, University High School
1999 Marion Kleinau, Southern Illinois University
2000 Kenneth Anderson
2001 Tom Sweeney, Homewood-Flossmoor High School
2002 Tom Pace & Douglas R. Springer
2003 Timothy Sweeney, Thornridge High School
2004 Jim Seamon
2005 Keith Sanders &Elighie Wilson
2006 Tina Winings, Charleston High School
2007 William R. Kirksey, Thornridge High School
2008 Jan Heiteen, Downers Grove South High School
2009 Eric Ewan, Pekin High School
2010 Lauren Morgan, College of DuPage
2011 Jeff Przybylo, Harper Community College
2012 Reddy Royce Wilson
2013 Pam Kimball, Benton High School
2014 Ed Jodlowski, Olympia High School
2015 Doug Jennings, Illinois State University
2016 Ellie Marvin, Normal Community West High School
2017 Adam Jenkins, Belleville West High School
2018 No Award Given
2019 Anna Wright, Illinois State University
2020 No award given
2021 Julie Weishar, Parkland College
2022 Heather Danek, Minooka Community High School, and Anthony Zoubek, Bartlett High School