1905-1998
Graduate of Miller Street School, South Side High and the Normal School. Received a Phd from psychology from Columbia.
She was a principal at Camden Street, Avon Avenue, and Maple Avenue Elementary Schools. She was the first woman principal at Avon Ave and also worked as a psychologist. Superintendent Eugene Campbell stated, “I found her to be a very dynamic individual who in my opinion had high standards. She ran a school that exemplified high standards.”
Her 1945 book “Reading Difficulty and Personality Organization” was used as a textbook nationwide. In 1983, she wrote a guide on higher education in the US for foreign students.
Edith was a lifelong member of Oheb Shalom, where her father Moses Gann was cantor. She also was a board member member of the American Jewish Committee, and a founder of the Center for Human Development at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. As part of AJC she founded The Children’s Ethnic Art Project to help children express feelings of ethnic heritage through art.
Bibliography
Gann, Edith, Newark News Morgue, Newark Library
“Compiles Guide for Students” Jewish News March 17, 1983
“Edith Gann, 93, Principal in Newark Public Schools” Star Ledger Sept 28, 1993
“Essex County school children establish identity via art” Herald News Sept 24, 1974