A former director of the National Teachers Hall of Fame and dean of the Emporia State University Teachers College has died.
Phil Bennett was boating with family at East Fork Lake just north of Olney, Illinois, and almost 500 miles due east of Emporia on Monday. A currently unidentified woman was operating the boat, with Bennett and a juvenile female on a tube. Both Bennett and the juvenile fell into the water at some point, but Bennett did not resurface. His body was discovered Wednesday.
Current Hall of Fame Executive Director Emeritus Carol Strickland says Bennett was thoroughly enjoying retirement.
The accident is being investigated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Office.
Bennett was 79. He led the Teachers Hall of Fame from November 2011 to the end of 2012, when Strickland was named as director. Bennett transitioned the Hall of Fame from a period without a director into a period of increased visibility and national reach, in part through the work to establish the National Memorial to Fallen Educators.
Funeral services are pending.
