Generous gift to ASU Libraries to benefit students for years to come

Arizona State University Libraries has received a $2 million bequest from an ASU alumna with an intense commitment to education in many forms. 

Marina Krause has left the bulk of her estate to ASU with the strict injunction that it all be used for the university library, under the direction of the university librarian. The gift will allow the library to strengthen its own support for ASU students everywhere.

For 15 years, it will support purchase of student reading materials; after 15 years, the librarian will have the option to direct the funds to other congruent purposes in the library, such as structural improvements to facilities.  

Krause received her doctorate from ASU in 1968, but before and after she was already marked by her commitment to education. She had spent ten years as an elementary school teacher at Desert View and Royal Palm schools in Phoenix, and as an expert particularly on teaching math at the elementary levels. With her doctorate, she moved to a faculty position at California State University in Long Beach, where she ascended to the rank of full professor and served for 46 years as the resident expert on teaching mathematics in grades K-8.

She was particularly known for bringing distinctive materials and traditions into the classroom and her best-known book was "Multicultural Math Materials." In the 1970s, Krause visited the Hopi and Zuni communities in Arizona to find traditional number games she could use to help students learn, but she drew on other traditions as far afield as Hawaii and ancient Egypt in the same spirit. In her career, she taught over 10,000 teacher candidates who would take her lessons with them as they did the vital work of teaching children the elements of mathematics. She remained active in teaching until her final illness took her from the classroom after the fall term of 2013 and she died in May of 2014. 

“Marina Krause’s gift came as a wonderful surprise a few months after my own arrival at ASU," said university librarian Jim O’Donnell. "It will let professor Krause’s vision live on and be enhanced to impact generations of students across the whole range of ASU’s programs.” 

Krause's mother, Eula N. Krause, was the co-founder of a PTA Chapter in a Phoenix school district in the 1950s. Eula was a keen observer of the inequities in schooling conditions in the district and became a stalwart advocate for quality education access for American Indian children. Krause credited her for her own love of teaching and learning from the culture of others. The attachment to the ASU Library was something the family shared.

Krause’s father, Harvey J. Krause, was a well-known musician in Phoenix going back to the days when he played organ at the Paramount Theater to accompany silent films. Krause credited him for her optimism, ambition and commitment. When Harvey performed professionally, he always ended his programs with the tune, “The Song Is Ended (But the Melody Lingers On)." That melody will linger for generations to come in the generosity of Marina Krause to ASU and its library.