Ocean City School Board Pays Tribute to Audrey Eichenberger

Audrey Eichenberger’s nameplate was present for the Ocean City Board of Education meeting Wednesday night, but her seat was empty.

That alone may have been a fitting tribute to a woman who dedicated so much of her life to educating children and who died suddenly after collapsing at a school board meeting in Upper Township on March 28.

But Ocean City board members took time before their meeting to pay tribute to a colleague who had served with them since 2003.

Kathleen Taylor, superintendent of schools, used a Judy Garland quote to sum up the straight-talking Eichenberger: “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Taylor spoke of a lifelong educator who “never really retired.” Eichenberger was a former Upper Township teacher who served on the Upper Township Board of Education and was a sending-district member of the Ocean City board.

“Audrey championed children every day,” Taylor said. “She would say, ‘They’re my kids,’ and she meant all of it. We loved Audrey, and we’ll miss her.”

Eichenberger’s three daughters–Pamela Burnell, Patricia Tomlinson and Kathryn Eichenberger-Moffatt–accepted a token of appreciation from the board, and the meeting began with a moment of silence.

Board member Joe Clark said the Ocean City Education Foundation would designate a scholarship in Eichenberger’s name.

And later Michele Barbieri, one of Eichenberger’s colleagues from Upper Township, spoke of the difficulty of attending recent meetings without Eichenberger present.

“But you know Audrey,” Barbieri said. “She’d just tell you to suck it up and move on.”