Fay Burras McCrory, MA, developed an early interest in mathematics thanks to her father, who taught her and her sister about numbers. During her high school years, she worked on weekends at the local market, and one of her employers pointed toward the scholarship exam for Lebanon Valley College. Excelling at the exam, she achieved a scholarship to attend said college, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1960. She later received a scholarship to pursue a Master of Arts in mathematics at Smith College, which she achieved in 1961. That same year, Ms. McCrory began her career as a mathematics professor at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, now Randolph College, a role she held until 1963.
In 1963, Ms. McCrory returned to Lebanon Valley College, this time as faculty, to be close to home in order to take care of her mother. She served as a mathematics professor with Lebanon Valley College for two decades until 1983, when she married her late husband, James. After her marriage, she went on to teach at the Pennsylvania State University in Harrisburg, also known as Penn State Harrisburg, for another two decades, from 1984 to 2004. Retiring from the field in 2004, Ms. McCrory hopes to leave a legacy as someone who cared about her work and helped students reach their potential.
Having accomplished much over the years, Ms. McCrory considers the most gratifying aspect of her career to be the times students have returned to thank her. She would advise young and aspiring teachers to focus on one subject in particular, be willing to work with many different people, and seek an understanding of different teaching methods, because the most important thing is ensuring that your students understand the material. For her excellence, Ms. McCrory has been named a Marquis Who’s Who Top Professional.
In her retirement, Ms. McCrory has been very active with her local Lutheran church and has also been involved with the Prayer Shawl Ministry since 2020. She is proud to live her life by the motto, “You do the best you can under any circumstances.”
