In Memory of Service-Learning Pioneer Dr. Harry C. Silcox

We join the larger service-learning community in grieving the passing of Dr. Harry C. Silcox, who died December 5, 2009. A Senior Fellow for NYLC, early member of the National Service-Learning Initiative and National Service-Learning Conference co-host, he also authored the 1993 book A How To Guide to Reflection: Adding Cognitive Learning to Community Service Programs. He founded and directed the Pennsylvania Institute for Environmental and Community Service-Learning, consulting on service-learning programs nationally and internationally and overseeing many local service-learning projects including a number that brought together students, seniors, and community members to document Northeast Philadelphia history. He was also passionate about international applications of service-learning, organizing the European Service-Learning Association.

Harry first came to prominence in the 1950s as a star basketball player for Temple University. He earned a doctorate in education from Temple and had a long career at Abraham Lincoln High School, where he started as basketball coach in 1957, and later moved into administration. He served as assistant principal of Lincoln High from 1967 to 1976, and as principal from 1976 to 1992. In 1987 he was recognized with the prestigious Marcus Foster Memorial Award, given annually to a Philadelphia public school administrator who exemplifies leadership, compassion, and intellectual curiosity — all traits he brought to his advocacy for service-learning.

Best known in his later years as a historian, he wrote numerous books and articles, lectured widely on Northeast Philadelphia history, and was considered the foremost historian of the area.