10/23/97

By Martha G. Barker (gentrme@mail.auburn.edu)

SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED HONORING PROFESSOR KILLED IN CRASH

AUBURN -- The Auburn University College of Education has awarded the first Dennis Sabo Memorial Scholarships to a student from Opp and an Auburn Junior High School teacher who is working on a doctorate degree.

Friends and family of Dennis Sabo, an education professor who was killed in the May 11, 1996 Valujet crash in South Florida, gathered on Oct. 15 to remember his dedication to education and honor the two scholarship recipients.

"It would make him happy to know his legacy is being carried on," said Sabo's wife, Beth. "He truly believed a quality education for our children was of the utmost importance and the way to get a quality education would be through quality leadership."

Lori Catrett of Opp, the daughter of Larry and Sue Catrett and a junior majoring in early childhood education, was awarded the Dennis Sabo Memorial Scholarship valued at $4,222 for four quarters.

"This scholarship is so helpful because I have a brother and sister in college." said Catrett. "I appreciate Mrs. Sabo and her support of Auburn's education program because it gives a lot of students the opportunity they would not have otherwise.

"After graduation I plan to teach pre-school and maybe kindergarten. I have always wanted to be a teacher because I really enjoy working with young children and I think it is really important for them to get off to a good start."

Ty Ford of Auburn, who is working on his doctorate in educational foundation leadership and technology, was awarded the Dennis Sabo Fellowship worth $4,222 for four quarters. Ford teaches seventh grade at Auburn Junior High School.

Without the Fellowship, Ford said work on his doctorate would not have been financially feasible.

"The fellowship has opened a door of opportunity I thought would never happen and now I can go further professionally than I ever thought I would," he said. "After graduation I hope to move into administration as assistant principal or principal, then either stay in public education or move to the post secondary level."

Sabo stood for the important values of a professor in the College of Education, said Richard Kunkel, dean of the college of Education. He added that the scholarship recipients reflected Sabo's values.

"We are all pleased his family is memorializing his name in this college and we are working on making these scholarships and endowment," Kunkel said. "Dr. Sabo was an excellent professor and was good at working with rural schools. He was the kind of professor any good college of education would value."

Although Sabo was at Auburn only three years, he loved the university, his wife said.

"Dennis went to a small college and did not get involved much, but when he came here he got tickets to the (football) game and the roar of the crowd just took him in," she said. "He was a true AU fan."

Sabo, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, was killed, along with 108 other people, in the crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in the Florida Everglades. Sabo was returning to Auburn from Miami where he had watched his son, Dennis J. Sabo Jr., graduate from the University of Miami with a degree in engineering.

Before coming to Auburn, Sabo was a mathematics teacher, assistant principal and principal in New Jersey. Sabo earned the bachelor's and master's degrees from Trenton State College in N.J., and the education doctorate from Rutgers University in 1993.

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CONTACT: Ford, 887-5590; Catrett, 887-7661; and Kunkel, 844-4446.