Michele (Throne) Kohn and Joyce Throne-Jones Early Education Endowment

Eligibility: Junior/Senior
Area of Interest: Early Childhood/Elementary Education

Criteria:

Junior/Senior majoring in early childhood or elementary education with a minimum GPA of 2.7. First preference to student from Douglas High School (SD). Second preference to student from Hot Springs High School, SD. Third preference to student from Burke, SD.

Michele (Throne) Kohn graduated from Chadron State College in 1972 earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. Michele was born and raised in Burke, SD, attending school in Burke through 10th grade. Michele's mother, Joyce Throne, was an RPN then Supervisor of the Burke Community Memorial Hospital. The Throne family moved to Hot Springs in the summer of 1966 where Joyce became the PM Supervisor at the Veteran's Administration Hospital and Michele began 11th grade. After graduating from Hot Springs High School, Michele began college at Chadron State College first studying business before discovering education was more to her liking! Michele minored in music enjoying time spent singing with the Eagleaires under the direction of Dr. Alfred Blinde. Michele completed method's education classes taught by Mr. Royce Vathauer prior to beginning the necessary student teaching experience in the Douglas School District under the guidance of Dr. Tom Detwiler. Michele's husband Ron, and their young son, Shaun, moved to Rapid City in early 1972 getting settled into a home not far from Canyon Lake. Michele arrived in March preparing to student teach in the Carrousel Kindergarten at the Douglas School District, Box Elder, South Dakota outside of Ellsworth AFB. After successfully completing student teaching and graduating from CSC, Michele, Ron, and Shaun survived a tragedy that struck Rapid City the night of June 9, 1972. Up to 15 inches of rain fell in the Black Hills and Rapid City area causing creeks to overflow and the Canyon Lake Dam to give way flooding the entire city and beyond. The Kohn family lived three blocks from the dam, surviving in a section of the home they rented that had been torn apart. Two hundred thirty-eight people perished that night. During the recovery period in Rapid City, Michele was hired by HUD (now FEMA) to relocate folks in need. She also received a call from the Douglas School District Principal, Edna Leach, hiring Michele to be a Kindergarten teacher in the Carrousel beginning in September. During Michele's teaching career she was mentored by teacher's in the ways of the British Infant School and Montessori studies, using these methods within her own classroom. Michele also earned a Master's in Administration from South Dakota State U, Brookings, SD. Michele's love of Early Childhood Education found her retiring after teaching Kindergarten in the Douglas School District for 32 years. Attaining education was an example set my Michele's Mother, Joyce Throne-Jones. Joyce began her studies right out of high school graduating from Grand Island business college in 1939. Joyce went right on to graduate from Sophy Teeter's School of Nursing at Lincoln (NE) General Hospital, 1943. Joyce continued to further her medical education while working as an RN culminating with a BS in Nursing from the Orvis School of Nursing, U of Nevada, Reno, 1981. Joyce passed away in September, 2019 at the age of 97 years.