St. Thomas educator Addelita Cancryn died Friday, March 19, at Sea View Nursing Home.
Cancryn served as principal of the Veterans Drive junior high school that was later named for her.
Cancryn, who was in her 90s, was a resident at Sea View for several years.
Acting Education Commissioner Ruby Simmonds expressed deep sympathy Monday to Cancryn's family and noted that she "was privileged to have had Dr. Cancryn teach me sewing when I was in the 6th grade at then then-Abraham Lincoln School."
Cancryn also mentored her when Simmonds was a fledgling teacher at Wayne Aspinall Junior High and Cancryn was principal, the commissioner recalled.
"Mrs. Cancryn will be missed," Simmonds said. "However, we can all take comfort in the knowledge that her contributions to our community will continue from generation to generation through the lives of the many students by whom she is revered and in whom she instilled a love of learning and a respect for education."
Cancryn began her career with the Education Department in 1918 as a vocational education teacher. She was an elementary and secondary school teacher as well as principal of Wayne Aspinall, which the 15th Legislature renamed in her honor.
In March 1985 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in education by the International University Foundation in Missouri.
Cancryn was the author of "Man of Vision," about fellow Virgin Islander J. Antonio Jarvis.
She retired in June 1971 after 53 years as an educator.
