WVNCC To Honor Marockie

Dr. Mary Marockie, long-time educator and volunteer in Wheeling, in West Virginia and the nation, will be honored for her service by West Virginia Northern Community College at the upcoming annual fund-raising dinner.

Marockie will be in the spotlight at the event sponsored by the Wheeling campus Friends of the College and the West Virginia Northern Community College Foundation, to be held this year on Saturday, March 15, at the Education Center building at 17th and Eoff streets downtown.

Wheeling campus Friends board members have selected a dinner theme to honor Marockie’s heritage and those in attendance will be treated to gourmet dining as prepared and served by the WVNCC Culinary Arts department and students. Theme for the 2014 dinner is “An Evening in Tuscany” and there will be live entertainment, silent and live auctions and a menu that promises to capture the essence of that sunny Italian region.

Nick Zervos, president of the Friends board, said, “Dr. Marockie’s dedication to education in general and to West Virginia Northern in particular is remarkable and deserves to be recognized and applauded. Please join us in honoring her, and in raising funds for the benefit of Northern’s students.” Marockie is nearing completion of her sixth year as president of the WVNCC Foundation Board of Trustees.

Chef Marian Grubor, college academic division chair and Culinary Arts program director, has planned a special menu for the evening in Tuscany. The theme was a natural one for Grubor who, as a volunteer, is president of the Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival. She has fashioned a meal that starts, of course, with antipasta of cold meats and pears with cheese and proceeds to zuppa (a Tuscan vegetable soup), a dish of wide pasta with light tomato sauce and a main choice of either Tuscan style pork roast or chicken roulades with sage or a vegetarian choice. The main dishes will be accompanied by a broccoli rabe with white wine sauce and roasted potatoes with herbs. Of course, as with any truly Italian meal, the insalata is served next and La Dolce Vita will be tiramisu.

The dinner activities are held in the Education Center lobby, Culinary Arts dining room and multi-purpose room. Friends and Foundation boards have numerous dinner sponsorship levels available. More information on fund-raising opportunities can be obtained by calling Rana Spurlock, the college’s fund raising and development assistant, at 304-214-8906.

Marockie, who received her doctorate from West Virginia University in curriculum and instruction and psychology, has credentials that have taken her throughout the U.S. as a consultant and speaker. She has done doctoral graduate study at Ohio University and the University of Michigan, received her master’s from WVU and her bachelor’s from the University of Charleston where she majored in education and psychology and was a summa cum laude graduate.

The honoree was director of curriculum and research and was interim director of the Regional Education Services Agency, RESA-6, in Wheeling. She was chief consultant for the Jefferson Right-to-Read Project in Parkersburg; in-service coordinator for the PACE Diagnostic Reading Clinic for which she wrote the operating grant and served as psychometrican and has taught at WVU on campus for six years and for the Extension service for three years, and at Ohio University Eastern and Ohio University, Athens, and in Glenwood School, Charleston. In addition, Marockie served on the Dean’s Visiting Committee of the WVU College of Human Resources and Education.

Marockie was instrumental in co-creating the Ohio County Tutorial Program which has been in operation for 30 years. She was the founder and impetus behind Ohio County’s award-winning Beginning Teacher Program. That program, which she developed and built, became a prototype for the statewide program. In addition, Marockie created and designed the Teach Reteach Process, a method to prevent academic failure, which was used throughout the state.

As a much sought-after speaker, she has given major presentations in 35 states and provided keynote addresses for all Center for Professional Development institutes in West Virginia. She is the only West Virginian elected to the board of the International Reading Association, with more than 100,000 members throughout the world, and served as an association presidential nominee.

Marockie was active with the Association of Teacher Educators, serving as chair of the State Council of Presidents; member, National Commission on Induction; and member, Blue Ribbon Commission on Reform. She also was president of the West Virginia Association of Teacher Educators. She served as vice chair of the West Virginia State Vocational Council, an appointee of the governor, as chairman of the West Virginia Advisory Council on Reading and as president of the West Virginia State Reading Association. She writes a quarterly publication for that organization. She received the Citation of Merit from the West Virginia Reading Association, the highest honor bestowed by the association.

As a consultant, she served schools and colleges in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, New York, and others, and also was the researcher and writer of numerous grants and articles, serving on editorial boards of three major publications. As a volunteer, she served as a state board officer in the Black Diamond Girl Scout Council, Newcomers Club of Wheeling, American Association of University Women, Parkersburg, the YWCA of Parkersburg, and the Wheeling Jesuit University Charter Guild, and has volunteered with the Wheeling Hospital Auxiliary, Florence Crittenton Home, the United Way and as a Wheeling City Council Ward Delegate, among numerous others.

She is married to Dr. Hank Marockie. They have a daughter, Felicia, who is married to Michael Fisher, and a grandson, Luke, from New York.

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