Retired Bellefonte Teacher Receives 2026 Madison Award

This story originally appeared in the Centre County Gazette.

By ALTHEA HELMS

BELLEFONTE — One of Bellefonte’s most influential teachers and leaders received the Madison Award during Centre County’s Constitution Day celebration on Saturday, Oct. 3.

Edward “Fitz” Fitzgerald III, who retired two years ago from his nearly 30-year career as a teacher at Bellefonte Area High School, received the award for his work creating opportunities for students to be poll workers during elections.

At Bellefonte High School, Fitzgerald was most well-known for his time teaching the AP Government class, a class meant for high academic achieving students who he enjoyed pushing to their full potential. While balancing his class load, Fitzgerald promoted local government by training and acquiring assignments for his students to work the polls.

“Without the next generation willing to step up, we’re all going to have problems running elections,” Fitzgerald said. He expressed his passion for the importance of involving the younger generation in government and politics.

“The kids did the work, I just facilitated it,” Fitzgerald said. It is these exponential efforts that made him the perfect 2026 Madison Award honoree. Fitzgerald was presented his award at Constitution Day in State College.

Constitution Day Centre facilitates this celebration of the delegates’ work at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

David Hutchinson, former member of the State College Area School Board, is the president of the association. He described the committee as a way to promote speaking in a democratic light with people of all perspectives, like the founding fathers did at the convention. The Madison Award is a big deal at the convention, being presented to a local individual or organization that “uplifts civility in the community.”

“Every year it grew and grew,” Fitzgerald said, recalling that his efforts in the polls began with only five students. “When the government saw we could have these students be trained in this way… it grew massively.”

By the time of his retirement, almost all of the senior class and half the junior class worked the polls thanks to Fitzgerald’s efforts. He has now passed the task onto Allyson Durney, another government teacher at Bellefonte High School.

“The biggest thing that I took from him is that no voice is too soft and no cause too small to be heard,” Durney said. She considers herself “lucky” to of had Fitzgerald as a mentor, “I would never try to fill his shoes, he’s walked way too many miles in them.”

On Oct. 3, Fitzgerald was able to join the other Madison Award honorees, like the 2025 honorees, Susan Trainor and Jan Ulbrecht, both remarkable healthcare professionals recognized for their positive positive impacts on the Centre Count and Mifflin County communities.

Fitzgerald is officially recognized for creating a legacy in the Centre County community that will benefit future generations of government for years to come.

“I can only teach so much in the classroom, living it is going to make all the difference,” he said.