By Joan F. Simoneau, Community Reporter
Hudson – The prestigious Technology/Engineering Education Lifetime Achievement award was presented recently to Charles Corley of Hudson by administrators at the Boston Museum of Science. He was recognized for his outstanding leadership role in the establishment of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education program.
For more than 35 years, Corley has devoted his time in the field of education, many years as a teacher. He served as a standards developer for the first two STEM curriculum frameworks in the 1990s and again in 2000. In 2005 he was appointed to the leadership team convened by the Museum of Science to initiate the National Center for Technological Literacy’s Gateway Project and is currently a member of the Mass. Governor’s STEM Advisory Council.
Corley started his career teaching industrial arts, subsequently pioneering and then championing his school’s complete transition to a STEM-based curriculum. He served as a teacher, mentor, curriculum developer and department head and for 35 years before retiring he taught students at the McCall Middle School in Winchester.
His continuing interest in the STEM program prompted his attention to Marlborough schools.
“I know the teachers in Marlborough who teach the technology/engineering part of the STEM program,” he said. “Mark Kobel, Tom Sullivan and Jeff Gay do a great job in telling students about the world around them, and how it came about and why it keeps changing. This is, in a nutshell, what technology/engineering is all about,” he said.
He enjoyed working closely with Dr. Yvonne Spicer, vice president of advocacy and educational partnerships at the National Center for Technological Literacy, who presented him with the award at a special ceremony.
After retiring in 2008, Corley joined the Hudson Senior Center where he was appointed to the Council on Aging (COA) board.
“As a teacher I spent my career helping people, mostly children, but now I use the same skills helping adults,” he said.
He offers a monthly genealogy workshop at the center to help track down missing family members.
Corley was born in Hudson, educated in Hudson Public Schools and graduated in 1973 from Fitchburg State College, now known as Fitchburg State University. He and his wife, Rosemary, lived in Hudson for the past 42 years. Their two children were educated in the Hudson Public Schools.