The educator, Berenice Maloney Crawford, was born on August 24, 1896 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, to Edmund P. and Paulina (Coffey) Maloney. Upon graduating with honors from high school, Miss Maloney decided to become a teacher and continued her education for two years at Stevens Point Normal School. In 1917, she accepted her first teaching position in Merrill, Wisconsin. Subsequently, Miss Maloney held several teaching and teacher-supervisory positions until her return to school to receive her Bachelor of Science degree in teacher training from the University of Minnesota in 1930. Four years later she completed her Master of Arts degree with a major in supervision and administration from the same university. Miss Maloney became the first degree trained elementary teacher-supervisor in Wisconsin, initially serving as the first elementary supervisor of graded schools in Beaver Dam. She also gave to the field the planned activity program at the kindergarten level.
In 1936, while teaching at the State Teachers College in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Miss Maloney met Frederick G. Crawford (1907-1949), an inventor and sound engineer. They were married in 1940. Following his untimely death in 1949, Mrs. Crawford entered the Doctoral program at Loyola University, Chicago, but never completed her degree. In 1950, she returned to Wisconsin to become Director of Elementary Student Teaching at Marquette University, Milwaukee, remaining there until her retirement in 1965. Mrs. Crawford was selected to be included in Who's Who in American Education in 1952.
An active and religiously-devout woman, Mrs. Crawford was involved in educational, civic and religious organizations. She was one of the founders of the Wisconsin chapter of the educational sorority Delta Kappa Gamma. She spoke to numerous church, school and civic groups. Always an eager traveler, retirement afforded Mrs. Crawford more time to pursue this interest. Among numerous excursions, she made two trips to the Orient, being particularly interested in Sogang University, Seoul, Korea, founded by the American Jesuit Fathers of the Wisconsin Province. Mrs. Crawford resided at her home on Lake Michigan, “Innesfree,” near Grafton, Wisconsin.
