Dorothy Pelak Bognar ’62, ’67 MA

Dorothy Pelak Bognar earned a BS in Physical Science in 1962 and MA in Science Education in 1967 at Montclair State. She then received an MS in Biochemistry from Fairleigh Dickinson in 1971.

Dorothy has spent 55 years as an educator. She was a supervisor of student teachers at Ramapo College for 16 years.  Prior to that, she taught chemistry for 39 years at Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes.

She is passionate about science education and equipping young people with the foundation to pursue their interests in various related fields.

Montclair State provided Dorothy with an entree into the field of science at a time when there were few women – and prepared her to be competitive. Once in the classroom and attending professional National Science Foundation Institutes, it became that much more apparent to Dorothy that her foundation at Montclair State had put her on track to a career that she loved and to excel at it.