Cause of death:  Cancer

Caren R. (Davis) Geissinger

1954 - February 20, 2008

Survivors: Husband, Steven Rosen; sons, Aaron and Adam, both of Chester Township; stepdaughters, Marissa Rosen of Tampa, Fla., and Lindsay Rosen of Mayfield Heights; parents, Sam and Dorothy Davis of Cleveland; and a sister.

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Friday, February 22, 2008

Caren Geissinger, Principal of School in Detroit-Superior Area

By Alana Baranick, Plain Dealer Reporter

ChESTER TOWNSHIP OH - Caren Geissinger, principal of Watterson Lake Elementary School, died of complications from cancer Wednesday, February 20, at the Hospice of the Western Reserve in Cleveland. The 53-year-old Chester Township resident had served as chief administrator at Watterson Lake since the late 1990s. In September 2007, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings visited the school in the Detroit-Superior neighborhood to promote renewal of No Child Left Behind. Spellings cited Watterson Lake because at the end of the 2006-07 academic year, about 85 percent of the school's sixth-graders read at grade level; there was virtually no difference between the performance of white and black students. Geissinger's colleagues credit her leadership and dedication to teachers and children for the progress the school had made. A few weeks after Spellings' visit, Geissinger's health declined sharply. She stopped going to school in October, but made it back for one week before Christmas. The Cleveland native, whose maiden name was Caren Rae Davis, grew up in Cleveland Heights and graduated in 1972 from Cleveland Heights High School. She received a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1975. She earned a master's degree in education from Kent State University in 1987. Geissinger taught at Mount Pleasant and Wilbur Wright schools in Cleveland before becoming assistant principal at Watterson Lake in 1996. She rose to principal a few years later. She recognized that children from low-income families often need practical assistance in addition to schooling. She became involved in a coats-for-kids program. Last year, she persuaded merchants to donate dozens of bookbags, which she distributed to students. At Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, she established the Helping Hands Fund to benefit children in the religious school. Geissinger, who did not go through the bat mitzvah "coming of age" rites as an adolescent, participated in a b'nai mitzvah at the temple on her 52nd birthday. "It's been a thrill to study our heritage, the Torah, the Talmud, and our history with the clergy at Fairmount Temple," Geissinger wrote in a first-person account that was printed in the Cleveland Jewish News in 2006. "It has opened my eyes to the plight of our 13-year-olds and helped me appreciate what they are going through to accomplish this mitzvah at a very sensitive age."