Ossining Board of Education to Honor Longtime Park School Teacher

The Ossining Board of Education is honoring the late Jean Lorraine Ackerman Boswell, a longtime Ossining teacher, with its annual Hester Bateman Spencer Hines Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the school district and community.

Mrs. Ackerman Boswell, who passed away last September at age 87, spent 32 years educating Ossining’s youngest students as a Park School early childhood educator. She was one of the first African-American female teachers hired at the elementary school level in the district.

Board of Education trustees will present the award to the Boswell family at their Feb. 15th meeting. The celebration of her contributions and accomplishments will take place in the Anne M. Dorner Middle School cafeteria. It will be live-streamed on YouTube and recorded.

“As a teacher in our district for over 30 years, Jean made a difference in the lives of hundreds of children in Ossining,” Board of Education President Graig Galef said. “I was fortunate to have known Jean and I am confident that her legacy, and her positive energy, remain in the minds of the students who were lucky enough to have her in their classroom.”

Trustees in 2021 established the Hester Bateman Spencer Hines Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award in memory of Ms. Spencer Hines, who was Ossining’s first Black educator. Each February, which is Black History Month, the board honors a Black community member/educator with a commitment to equity, enthusiasm for education and a record of exceptional service to the school district. Last year’s award winner was Francine Vernon, a former Board of Education member and a community leader.

Mrs. Ackerman Boswell, who grew up in Harlem, was academically gifted. She majored in liberal arts and minored in psychology at Hunter College. After graduating in 1956, she began a career as a social worker at the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation in the South Bronx.

She moved to New Rochelle in the 1960s, where she met and then married Christopher Boswell. The couple were married 60 years and had three children – Donna, Gail and Christopher. Mrs. Ackerman Boswell later went on to earn a master’s degree in education at the Bank Street College of Education.

Mrs. Ackerman Boswell was also gifted in music. She was a Hunter College Choir member and performed with another choral group at the United Nations’ 10-year anniversary. She was a member of the Ossining Choral Arts Society for more than 30 years. She performed at the Sydney Opera House in Australia with a combined choral ensemble from throughout the United States.

Mrs. Ackerman Boswell had a lifelong commitment to education and international understanding and traveled widely, including to Europe, New Zealand, Fiji, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.