UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lifelong teacher and Penn State College of Education alumnus Harry B. Kropp recently passed away at the age of 84.
A passionate philanthropist, Harry, along with his fellow teacher and devoted husband Ed, created the Harry B. Kropp and Edward J. Legutko Award for Student Teaching in 2016. Consideration for the award is given to undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Education at Penn State University Park who have demonstrated professional promise as a teacher during their student teaching experience, or similar culminating field experience in the teacher education curriculum.
“Our hope in establishing this award is to recognize and encourage a Penn State student to pursue a career as a teacher and to approach their students with joy, understanding and kindness,” Harry and Ed said in a statement when the award was initially announced.
Initially planned to go into effect after the surviving partner had passed, subsequent gifts made during Harry’s lifetime have allowed early activation of the award.
“Getting to know Harry Kropp and Ed Legutko was one of the high points of my time as dean of the college,” said dean emeritus David Monk, who led the College of Education when the award was established. “Their love of life and commitment to spreading love, tolerance and compassion was and is inspiring and is personified in the scholarship they created for students in the college. Their dream to encourage talented people to become teachers who approach their students with joy, understanding and kindness became the watchwords for Harry's life. It is altogether fitting for his legacy to carry this message forward in perpetuity.”
A State College native, Harry graduated from the College of Education in 1963 with a degree in secondary education. He taught at North Penn High School for two years before returning to Penn State to earn a master’s in Spanish in 1965. After receiving his master’s, Harry was hired to teach Spanish in the Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) program in Greenwich, Connecticut — one of the few school systems at the time that taught foreign languages in elementary school. At the end of his first year, he met Ed, who had applied for a job opening in the FLES program.
Harry and Ed worked together as colleagues and easily and quickly became friends. When budget cuts eliminated the FLES program, they both became certified to teach in a general elementary classroom. They went on to teach second, third and fourth-graders in the same school, where they ultimately became part of a four-member teaching team.
Upon retirement in 2003, Harry and Ed returned to State College where they volunteered with the then-named LGBTQA Student Resource Center — now the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity — at Penn State’s University Park campus, and also served with Penn State’s Catholic Campus Ministry. They were legally married in Provincetown, Massachusetts on July 29, 2005, after Massachusetts recognized marriage equality. Harry and Ed were together a total of 59 years.
A Mass of Christian Burial was held Feb. 2 at Our Lady of Victory in State College, celebrated by Father Matthew Laffey. Interment was held on Feb. 4 at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut. Arrangements were handled by Koch Funeral Home in State College.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Harry’s memory to causes he held dear, such as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The Trevor Project or the Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity at Penn State.
In addition to his husband, Harry is survived by his sister-in-law, Tina Legutko; niece Lisa Bostic Paro; nephew Jeff Bostic; and many other family members, friends and chosen family whose lives he touched deeply.