Noted professor, author, editor, and children’s literacy advocate Bernice “Bee” Cullinan died on February 5. She was 88.
Cullinan was born on October 12, 1926 in Hamilton, Ohio. She began her career as an elementary school teacher as she pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies at Ohio State University. Cullinan received her Ph.D. in 1964, the first doctoral student to study under children’s literature expert Charlotte Huck, who grew to be an influential mentor. In the 1970s, Huck, a former president of NCTE, was instrumental in establishing the NCTE poetry award for children to honor Cullinan’s son Jonathan, who was killed in 1975 in a bicycle accident.
Cullinan was an instructor and assistant professor at Ohio State from 1959 to 1967 before moving to an associate professor position at New York University in 1967, where she became a professor of reading and taught for 30 years, retiring as professor emeritus of reading and children’s literature. Outside of the classroom, Cullinan was president of the International Reading Association (now International Literacy Association) from 1979 to 1984. Additionally, she served on numerous boards relating to children’s literature and education, and was on the Caldecott Award selection committee in 1982–83. She received many accolades for her teaching and advocacy work, including induction into the IRA’s Reading Hall of Fame in 1989.
Cullinan has stated that her roles of teacher – both to young children, and to other teachers – and parent to her three children drew her to the world of children’s books. Within that arena, her great passion was children’s poetry. In 1990, Cullinan was named editor-in-chief of Wordsong, the newly created poetry imprint at Boyds Mills Press, a position she held until 2008.
Throughout her career, Cullinan wrote or edited more than 40 books, a combination of reference, teaching instruction, and children’s titles. One of her widely known academic works, Children’s Literature in the Reading Program (IRA), was first published in 1987. A fourth edition of that book, Children’s Literature in the Reading Program: Engaging Young Minds in the 21st Century, written with Cullinan’s friend and mentee Deborah Wooten, was released in Feb. 2015. According to Cullinan’s husband, publisher and author Kenneth Seeman Giniger, she had just received copies of the book on the day she died. A ninth edition of her basic text Literature and the Child (Wadsworth) is currently in the works.
In recent years Cullinan put her efforts into creating a children’s library at her church, the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 2 East 90th Street, in New York City. A memorial for her will be held at the church on Saturday, March 7 at 11 a.m. The family has suggested that funds to continue the church library be sent to the Bernice Cullinan Library Fund at the church’s address. Memorial donations may also be made to the Bernice Cullinan Scholarship Fund Highlights Foundation at 814 Court Street, Honesdale, PA 18431.
