Gail I. Tanzman, 66
POWNAL, Vt. â€' Gail Ingrid Tanzman, 66, of Pownal died Wednesday evening, June 2, 2010, at home after losing her struggle with cancer.
Born in Boston on July 21, 1944, daughter of Adams and Patricia Terchner Garrett, she was raised in Plainfield, N.J., graduated from local public high school in 1962 and earned her bachelor's degree from Goddard College in 1966. For the next two years, she was a community organizer for the Tufts University Health Center in Boston's Columbia Point housing project. She completed her master's degree in counseling through Antioch-New England Graduate School in Keene, N.H., while teaching at the pilot Northern Berkshire Mini-School for emotionally disturbed adolescents in Williamstown, Mass., from 1974 to 1977.
A longtime educator, Mrs. Tanzman had been assistant superintendent of the Battenkill-Rutland Supervisory Union in Manchester for eight years and taught numerous courses at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and at Castleton State College. She also did consulting and gave lectures and workshops.
She first taught from 1968 to 1974 in Hollis, N.H., where she â€' in her own words â€' "fell in love with teaching." She spent 1979-80 as assistant superintendent at Belchertown (Mass.) State School, then went to work for the Massachusetts Department of Education as the secondary-school coordinator for special education while pursuing a doctoral program in special education at Boston College and University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
She participated in reading conferences both nationally and internationally, including in New Zealand in 2000 and Scotland in 2002. Her more recent teaching-centered activity was serving as president of the Oak Hill Children's Center in Pownal. Her standards were never higher for others than they were for herself. In her more than 40 years as a teacher, her principle method was teaching by example. While in Manchester, she received the prestigious Robert T. Stafford Award for Distinguished Service in Special Education.
Despite her active career and commitment to family, she had numerous other interests. With her husband, she traveled extensively and raised and trained Weimaraners for love and show. She was an avid gardener, an exquisite cook and hostess and a born storyteller.
Family said Mrs. Tanzman met her diagnosis of brain cancer with the same spirit that she met every other challenge in her life. She fought it with the support of family and friends; she persevered with realism, grace and even wit. She will be sorely missed by the many whom her life touched.
She leaves her husband of 30 years, Dr. Irving J. Tanzman, local optometrist; a daughter, Beth H. Murray of Burlington; four sons, George E. Tanzman of Oceanside, Calif., David J. Tanzman and Jayson M. Tanzman, both of Pittsfield, Mass., and Colin Barney of Cambridge, N.Y.; a sister, Joyce Kasuga of Tel Aviv, Israel, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
FUNERAL NOTICE â€' A memorial service celebrating Mrs. Tanzman's life will take place Friday, June 18, at 7 p.m. at Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, West Chapels.
Calling hours will be Friday, June 18, from 4 until the service at the funeral home. The family requests that those wishing to honor her memory contribute to the Oak Hill Children's Center in Pownal through the funeral home, 521 West Main St., North Adams, MA 01247.