Claire McGeehan, a retired Media Elementary School teacher who served as a board member at the Media Fellowship House died March 12. She was 72, writes Valerie Russ for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

 “Something that made her unique was the immense amount of respect that she had for all of the young people in her life, whether they were her children, grandchildren, friends, or colleagues,” wrote her daughter Colleen McGeehan in a statement released by the family.

Mrs. McGeehan also supported the Media Fellowship House, which provides programs for social justice and economic empowerment.

She was “deeply committed to racial justice work in Media and Delaware County,” said the statement.

She was in one of the first desegregated classes in high school in the South, driving her pursuit of racial and social justice.

She participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement and served in VISTA.

She was a sixth-grade teacher at Penn Wynne Elementary School in Lower Merion but gave up teaching when she married and raised three children.

She returned to teaching in 1998 at Media Elementary School.  In 2011, Mrs. McGeehan won the Delaware County Excellence in Teaching Award.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer about the life of Claire McGeehan.