Richard H. Balomenos Memorial Award

The Richard H. Balomenos Memorial Award was established by the Executive Board of NHTM in 1987, to remember and honor a former colleague, educator, and friend. Richard Balomenos and his wife, Georgia, died tragically in an automobile accident in December 1986. As both teacher and administrator at the University of New Hampshire for almost 25 years, Richard had a profound influence on mathematics education in the state of New Hampshire. The award is presented annually to a New Hampshire mathematics educator who has shown outstanding or meritorious service or leadership to the mathematics education community on a statewide basis.

 

Past recipients:

1988 Ferd Prevost	1999 Karen Graham	2010 Barbara Boschmans
1989 Kay Reardon	2000 David Kent	2011 No Award Given
1990 Carol Findell	2001 Barbara Hill	2012 No Award Given
1991 Laurie Boswell	2002 Cecile M. Carlton	2013 Christine Downing
1992 Richard Evans	2003 Roberta Kieronski	2014 Rich Andrusiak
1993 Joan Ferrini-Mundy	2004 Tim Kurtz	2015 Greg Superchi
1994 Enid Burrows	2005 Judy Curran Buck	2016 Stephanie Wheeler
1995 Betty Erickson	2006 Darien Lauten	2017 No Award Given
1996 Art Johnson	2007 William J. Roberts	2018 No Award Given
1997 Lew Knight	2008 Brian P. Beaudrie	2019 No Award Given
1998 Beverly Ferrucci	2009 Albert B. Bennett

Richard H. Balomenos Memorial Award 

18 March 2016

 

Hello, my name is Greg Superchi and I am the most recent recipient of the Richard H. Balomenos Award.  It is truly my pleasure to explain the award and announce this year’s recipient. I was incredibly honored and grateful to receive the award last year. Thank you to the New Hampshire Teachers of Mathematics.

The Richard H. Balomenos Memorial Award was established by the Executive Board of NH-ATMNE (now the NHTM) in 1987, to remember and honor a former colleague, educator, and friend. Richard Balomenos and his wife, Georgia, died tragically in an automobile accident in December 1986. As both teacher and administrator at the University of New Hampshire for almost 25 years, Richard had a profound influence on mathematics education in the state of New Hampshire. The award is presented annually to a New Hampshire mathematics educator who has shown outstanding or meritorious service or leadership to the mathematics education community on a statewide basis.

This year’s recipient has been a mathematics educator and leader in our state for over twenty years. Spending just under half that time at the middle school level is enough to deserve an award in and of itself; this year’s recipient did just that!  Most of the second half of the awardee’s career has been spent at the elementary level as a teacher, coach, supervisor, and even some would say professor teaching multiple graduate courses throughout the state and New England.

This award winning educator has served and spoken at numerous NHTM, ATMNE, as well as NCTM regional and national conferences.  The recipient has been the overall program chair or elementary program chair for this annual conference multiple times and the conference chair, overseeing the entire event, as well. As a member of the NHTM for more than ten years, this person has also served on the NHTM Executive Board for six plus years.

I mentioned that this is an “award winning educator.”  Those awards include a New Hampshire Department of Education “Edie”, the Richard C. Evans Distinguished Mathematics Educator Award, as well as the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching.  Now that’s something to brag about! 

As one of the nominations letters said, this educator “exemplifies the spirit and love for mathematics education and education in general as did Richard Balomenos” himself.  A few words, personally, from me about this year’s awardee.  If I, as a high school teacher, have the choice of going to a workshop given by a secondary level instructor and one given by this educator on any mathematics topic including elementary education, I will choose [this person] every time. I have had the pleasure of attending presentations to educators as well as observing the classroom of this educator.  I guarantee that any mathematics educator K-16+ will learn something about pedagogy, content, or both if you have the pleasure of listening to this person speak or teach.  The passion and love for mathematics education this person displays is second to none.  If I could choose only one teacher for my children in mathematics education, I would choose this educator.

Although some would say that this year’s recipient was born into mathematics education being the child of one of New Hampshire’s most esteemed mathematics educators, the recipient has chosen to remain in service and leadership in mathematics education.  Even as she recently became a school principal in our state, a job that seems to boundlessly consume time and energy, she somehow finds enough extra time and energy to continue to be involved in mathematics education in our state. 

It gives me great pleasure to present this year’s Richard H. Balomenos Memorial award to my colleague and someone I am honored to call my friend, Stephanie Wheeler. Congratulations!

 

(This statement was read by Greg Superchi, 2015 Balomenos recipient, at NHTM's Annual Spring Conference  which took place at Keene State College on March 18, 2016.)

To nominate a deserving individual for this award send the nomination information explaining why this individual merits this recognition, the name and contact information of the person making the nomination to the current President of NHTM  no later than January 1, 2017 by e-mail to: nhtmpresident@nhmathteachers.org or mail the information to:

Annie Wallace

c/o 3 Old Danville Rd.

Brentwood, NH 03833