[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 9, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E966-E967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        HONORING JEANIE NERESON

                                 ______


                          HON. BILL RICHARDSON

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 9, 1995
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, this June marks the end of an era in Los 
Alamos, NM. A school teacher, who has been with the school system as 
long as there has been a school system in Los Alamos, is retiring after 
50 years of service.
  Mrs. Jeanie Nereson started working for the Los Alamos Public Schools 
in the fall of 1944. That was the first year of the new school system--
a system set up specifically to teach the children of the employees and 
scientists working on the Manhattan Project located on an isolated 
mountain in northern New Mexico.
  That project of course helped us win World War II and the facilities 
later became the Los Alamos National Laboratories. The school system 
grew and Mrs. Nereson returned every September for 50 years to teach 
another group of children of laboratory workers.
  Mrs. Nereson was reared in New York City, the daughter of Greek 
parents. Her childhood wasn't easy as English was her second language. 
She persevered and went onto college in Denton, TX. After just 3 years 
of schooling, she graduated from college at the age of 19.
  She began her 57 year teaching career in Phar, TX. She started out 
with 69 first grade students. By Christmas, she was assigned 140 
students. After 1\1/2\-years in Phar, she took a teaching assignment in 
Port Arthur, TX for 3\1/2\-years and then onto Corpus Christi for 1 
year.
  While studying for her masters degree during the summer at the 
University of Minnesota she met an educator who was given the 
responsibility of setting up a school system in Los Alamos, NM. Shortly 
thereafter she moved to Los Alamos and was with the school system from 
day one.
  In her first year in Los Alamos in 1944, Mrs. Nereson taught a 
combination 5th and 6th grade class. Over the next 50 years, she worked 
in five different buildings and taught in every grade from one through 
six.
  She used her summers off to travel around the world. She's been to 
every continent except Antarctica. Each of her excursions was an 
educational trip as she would bring back artifacts and other material 
and incorporate her findings in her lessons. Her classroom is described 
as a museum. She travelled as much for the children as for herself.
  During the 1 year she took a sabbatical, she travelled to Brazil and 
did what she does best, she taught.
  Over the years, Mrs. Nereson has taught some 1,800 students--many of 
them the sons and daughters of some of our Nation's most distinguished 
scientists. Some of these students have returned to Los Alamos in 
recent days to bid farewell to Mrs. Nereson, a local hero who will be 
sorely missed this September when students return to classes--never 
before has the Los Alamos Public Schools opened its 
[[Page E967]] doors without Mrs. Nereson welcoming children into a 
classroom.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in congratulating Mrs. Nereson for 
her 57 years of educating our youth and wish her well during her 
retirement. Los Alamos County will be paying special tribute to Mrs. 
Nereson on Friday, May 19 which is being declared Jeanie Nereson Day in 
Los Alamos.


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