Millicent Preissel Scanlin Memorial Teacher Endowed Scholarship

As the first public kindergarten teacher in the State of Montana, Millicent Preissel Scanlin is a living Montana icon who touched the lives of many children over the years. Millicent Preissel was born June 23, 1911, in New Britain, Connecticut. She was raised in a polyglot neighborhood of European immigrants whose children she would later teach in classes in which English was not even a second language for many of the students. Millicent graduated from New Britain Normal School in the 1920s. She married Donald Scanlin, a newly-ordained Congregational minister, on November 24, 1938, and followed him to serve churches in Maine, Minnesota, Indiana, and Montana. While in Montana, Millicent taught in Red Lodge, Circle, and Billings. In the 1950s, Millicent provided kindergarten classes in the Red Lodge church parsonage for several years before starting the first public kindergarten in Red Lodge in 1952, believed to be the first in Montana. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in education in 1968 from Eastern Montana College (now MSU Billings), and was honored to be a member of the international teacher’s sorority Alpha Delta Kappa. She retired to Red Lodge with her husband in 1976. Even after retirement, Millicent maintained her involvement in the Red Lodge community at her church and senior citizens center. Millicent passed away January 17, 2010, at age 98. Compassionate, cheery, gracious and kind, Millicent will be remembered fondly for a long life well-lived. In memory of Millicent and her strong belief in education, her daughter Elizabeth Scanlin established the Millicent Preissel Scanlin Memorial Teacher Scholarship Endowment at MSU Billings in March 2010. The first scholarship was awarded in academic year 2011-2012.