Rose Anne Lasher

Rose Anne Lasher known to her friends as Rick died peacefully on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. She was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 10, 1926 to Italian immigrant parents, Pietro and Angela Misciagna along with two brothers, Nick and John. She went to high school at Bay Ridge High. With the support of her parents, she went to New York University and received a degree in journalism. She married Milton Thomas Lasher Jr. in 1952 and had 4 children who survive her: Thomas, Peter, Richard, and Jean. She is also missed by her grandchildren; Miel Leslie, Iris Misciagna, Isabella Garland and Luc Garland. She continued her education and received a teaching degree from Montclair and went on to teach Art at Cherry Hill Elementary School in River Edge, New Jersey. After many exciting years of teaching, she pursued and achieved her Master’s degree and went on to pursue her doctorate in Art Education at NYU. Rick Lasher was elected an National Arts Education Association Distinguished Fellow. She was elected “Chair” of the Fellows and ended her three year term in New Orleans in 2015. The Art Educator of New Jersey awarded Rick Lasher the organization’s highest honor, The “Distinguished Achievement Award” for long term dedication to the visual art profession, to AENJ goals, for exemplary leadership and teaching and recognition award as Distinguished Fellow and Past President. She is retired from Moore College of Art & Design as Supervisor of Student Teacher and from the River Edge, New Jersey Schools. She served as Director of the Getty Center for Education in the Arts sponsored “Hands & Minds Institute” co-sponsored by AENJ and NAEA for ten years. Included were students from the Philippines, France, Brazil and throughout the US who were interested in DBAE, a new paradigm in art education. As AENJ state president from 1976-1977 and 1978, Rick led the state “with wisdom, humor and experience”. She also served as Newsletter Editor and Convention Chair. The AENJ Executive Board named an award in her honor: The RICK LASHER Professional Growth Grant which provides members with monies to attend NAEA conventions. She is a former NAEA Executive Board member, serving as a Division Director, a member of the Professional Materials Committee and served as a Chair and member of several NAEA Nominations Committee. She is the recipient of five New Jersey Governor’s Awards, and national awards including NAEA Distinguished Achievement Within the Profession Award, Eastern Region Educator of the Year, Elementary Educator of the Year, Marion Quin Dix State Leadership Awards and is the chair and author/editor of the Hands & Minds Curriculum Armature and an author of New Jersey Goals & Standards K-12. Rick Lasher was a Trustee of the National Art Education Foundation for eight years. She was a member of the New Jersey Department of Education first Panel who wrote the original Arts Education Standards. Known as Mrs. Lasher by the hundreds of young students that she introduced to the wonders of Art. As Rick to her husband, friends and colleagues. As mom to her children and as grandma to their children. She will be missed.