Saturday, July 03, 1999
Mary Brogan, teacher, wife and cancer activist, left mark
BY REBECCA BILLMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Mary J. Brogan was a teacher, so it was only natural that she devote her time and energy to cancer education and fundraising after her March 1997 diagnosis of breast cancer.
Mrs. Brogan, a Cincinnati native and wife of Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, lost her fight against the disease Sunday at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She was 44.
Aware that as a Cabinet officer's wife her illness would get statewide attention, Mrs. Brogan took time from her job teaching at Florida State University to spread the word about early detection.
She spent countless hours in public speaking, regularly visiting schools, and participating in promotional activities such as cancer walks.
“Education was her first love,” said Mr. Brogan, former Florida state education commissioner. “She carried out her role as first lady of education enormously well even when very ill.”
Born in Cincinnati in 1954, Mrs. Brogan graduated from Mount Notre Dame High School in Reading in 1972.
Mr. Brogan, reared in Blue Ash and a 1971 Moeller High School alumnus, told Cincinnati Magazine in a recent interview how he and Mrs. Brogan met at Sharon Woods the summer they were 14.
The pair married in 1976, the same year Mr. Brogan graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in education, and they moved to Florida.
Mrs. Brogan received her bachelor's degree in 1982 and her master's degree in 1986 from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla.
She began her career as a third grade teacher at Port Salerno Elementary School in Port Salerno, Fla. Five years later she became assistant principal at Pinewood Elementary in Stuart Fla.
She returned to Port Salerno Elementary as assistant principal, serving in that capacity until 1994, when her husband was elected to the state education commissioner's post.
Mrs. Brogan was teaching education at Florida State University College of Education in Tallahassee when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997.
After a mastectomy and bone-marrow transplant, she enjoyed a remission, during which Mr. Brogan ran on the ticket with Jeb Bush for Florida's Lieutenant Governor.
“She was a tireless campaigner during her year of remission,” Mr. Brogan said. “She did an incredible job for us.”
After the election, and before the inauguration, the cancer returned in a more aggressive form.
“She was bright and enthusiastic and as loving as anyone could ever have been,” Mr. Brogan said.
“It is impossible to spend any time around Mary without being in love with her. She always gave considerably more than she ever took.”
About 1,300 people attended a memorial service for Mrs. Brogan Wednesday and the family received calls from Vice President Gore and Bob and Elizabeth Dole as well as host of others whose lives she touched.
Mary Brogan accomplished what every teacher hopes to. She left a mark.
Mrs. Brogan was a member of the American Association of the University of Women and honorary chair of Very Special Arts, a program for special education students.
Other survivors include her two sisters, Jayne Leisring of Amberley and Carol Stacey of West Chester.
Memorial services were held in Tallahassee and Stuart, Fla. Mrs. Brogan's remains were cremated.
Memorials may be made to the Mary J. Brogan Scholarship Fund c/o Martin County Community Foundation II, 759 S. Federal Highway, Stuart Fla. 34994.
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