Dorothy Pryor

You teach people who you are and where you've been

Dorothy Pryor’s life has revolved around education and her Springfield, Massachusetts home. She remembers running (not walking) to Classical Junior and Senior High School and how, as a student, she loved the library. During World War II, her academic years at Fisk University where punctuated by summers working in the Springfield Armory. After finishing her education in Chicago, Illinois and teaching at the Kentucky State College for Negros, she and her husband Albert returned to teach in her hometown. Albert Pryor became Springfield’s first black high school teacher and his wife came to teach English at Technical High School and then at the Springfield Technical Community College (STCC). Dorothy is guided by her belief that, “you don't teach anybody what you know. You teach people who you are and where you've been.”

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