PCA/ACA
In Memoriam: Sally Sugarman
Sally Sugarman
Former PCA Vice President Sally Sugarman died December 9, 2020. She was born Sally Marino on March 27, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York. She received a B.A. in English Literature from New York University, an M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education (in New York City), and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Research from the State University of New York at Albany.
Sally was Vice President of Awards of PCA from 2008 to 2012. She was active for many years in the PCA Children’s Literature Area.
Sally taught Childhood Studies for 35 years at Bennington College (in Bennington, Vermont), where she founded and directed the Early Childhood Center. In 1955 she founded the Westport Weston Cooperative Nursery School in Westport, Connecticut.
Sally served as Chair of the Vermont State Board of Education, President of the Vermont School Boards Association, and President of the Bennington Rotary, for which she also was newsletter publisher. Sally was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars (an international, invitation-only Sherlock Holmes literary society) and founder and Chair of the Baker Street Breakfast Club (an approved scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars), for which she also edited the quarterly newsletter Groans, Cries and Bleatings.
Sally was a noted scholar of Sherlock Holmes and children’s literature and culture. Her books include If Kids Could Vote: Children, Democracy, and the Media (Lexington Books, 2007), How Shakespeare Is Presented to Children: A Review of Methods Used to Incorporate the Bard Into the Canon of Children’s Literature (Edwin Mellen Press, 2016), and the edited collections Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Sleuth to Modern Hero (coeditors Charles R. Putney and Joseph A. Cutshall King) (Scarecrow Press, 1996) and Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His Worlds (Mountainside Press, 2013). Her articles and book chapters include “Whose Woods Are These Anyhow? Children, Fairy Tales, and the Media” (in The Antic Art: Enhancing Children’s Literary Experiences Through Film and Video, edited by Lucy Rollin) (Highsmith, 1993), “Children on Board: Images from Candy Lands” (in Images of the Child, edited by Harry Eiss) (Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1994), “Playing the Game: Rituals in Children’s Games” (in Rituals and Patterns in Children’s Lives, edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson) (University of Wisconsin Press / Popular Press, 2005), and “Sherlock Holmes and the Children” (The Baker Street Journal, 2008).
Sally is survived by her husband of 61 years, Robert Sugarman (also a longtime PCA member); her sons Paul and David; and her grandchildren Kate and Marnie.