Opening minds one book at a time

09/24/2024

Libraries transformed the lives of Phylis Duke Fralick ’58 and Fredric Fralick ’59. Now they are paying it forward.

The longtime supporters of SUNY Cortland’s Memorial Library were recognized Sept. 19 when the library named one of its larger collections as the Phylis D. ’58 and Fredric R. Fralick ’59 Teaching Materials Center at SUNY Cortland.

A bronze plaque was unveiled near the center’s entrance in the first-floor north wing of Memorial Library. Attending the ceremony with the Fralicks of Forest, Virginia, and their family members, were SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum, Rich Coyne ’07, vice president for institutional advancement, Tina Aversano, director of development and gift planning, library Director Jennifer Kronenbitter and center Librarian Lisa Czirr.

The Fralick’s gift positions the center, which already takes up much of the first floor’s north wing, to annually acquire generous supplies of new children’s books, other educational materials and furnishings, and educational equipment such as additional whiteboards for class projects. To browse its offerings, visit SUNY Cortland’s online TMC Guide.

“It brings us beyond what we are able to do with our annual collections fund through the university,” said Czirr. “We can also think about different kinds of needs, like furniture.”

Started several decades ago as a modest collection of children’s books, the Fralick Teaching Materials Center is one of only 187 such curriculum materials centers around the country.

The center holds the highest circulating collection within the library, noted Memorial Library Director Jennifer Kronenbitter.

The current collection — just under 22,000 picture, chapter and board books, kits, games, puppets and “real-world” type objects — is used primarily by students enrolled in the School of Education and as a public resource to the region’s educators.

The couple first met inside the former Cortland State Teacher’s College library in Old Main, giggling and playing footsie under a table until a testy librarian threw Fred out, never to return. They got married during Fred’s senior year.

Phylis found more than love in the stacks. She retired in 1998 after 35 years as an elementary school teacher, reading specialist, and finally a specialist to children needing remedial experiences, with the balance of her career spent in Campbell County, Virginia, where the couple lives. She used her library’s bounty of books and learning materials to turn on the lights in her pupil’s brains.

“What was very rewarding for me through all my teaching experience was to have a student smile at me and say, ‘I think I’ve got it now,’” Phylis said. “It is just a treasure.”

“We want to see the library enhance the lives of lots of folks,” said Fred Fralick, a former physical education major at Cortland. A high school teacher who earned a doctorate in education from Syracuse University, he capped a long career running his own successful human resources consulting agency. “We are just glad we are in a situation where we can donate enough to make a difference.”

The couple also endowed the Phylis Duke Fralick ’58 and Fred Fralick ’59 Scholarship for a SUNY Cortland student in any discipline with satisfactory academic achievement and demonstrated financial need.

After Cortland, while earning her master’s degree in reading on a fellowship, Phylis worked in a teaching materials center at the then Glassboro State College in New Jersey (now Rowan University). There, she burnished her already impressive teacher credentials: a Teacher of the Year Award from the East Syracuse Minoa (N.Y.) District.

“I learned so much about teaching because I was focused on what kind of hands on materials were available for teachers to use to enhance their students,” Phylis said. “It’s one thing a lot of teachers miss out on. It opened so many windows for me.”

“After she retired, for the next 10 years easily, we would be in the grocery store and some male or female would come up and say, ‘Mrs. Fralick, Mrs. Fralick, you taught me reading,’” Fred said. “When they got the hang of reading, their whole life changed.”