Longtime Western New York educator Charles Stoddart, associate professor of School Building Leadership in the College of Education at the State University of New York at Fredonia, has received the Chautauqua County School Boards Association’s 2017 Friend of Education award.

“It’s truly rewarding to be the recipient of the CCSBA Award. Being recognized by one’s peers for doing what comes as an educational duty is truly awesome,” said Dr. Stoddart, whose career in education spans parts of six decades, including the last 13 years at Fredonia. Stoddart is a co-coordinator of School Building and School District Leadership programs in the Department of Language, Learning and Leadership.

The award, a sculptured glass trophy, was presented at the association’s annual meeting held recently at the Williams Center on the Fredonia campus. Given annually since 1996, the award recognizes an individual or organization that has contributed professionally or in a volunteer capacity to improve educational opportunities for students. Approximately 250 honored students, school board members, administrators, family members, friends and corporate sponsors of CCSBA attended the gathering.

Charles Leichner, superintendent of the Cassadaga Valley Central School District and president of the Far West Council of School Superintendents, nominated Stoddart for the award.

Previous award recipients from Fredonia include 1987 graduate Kent Knappenberger, President Emeritus Dennis Hefner and Professor Emeritus of Education Robert Heichberger.

Stoddart joined the College of Education in 2004 after 42 years of service in the Orchard Park Central School District. He began his career as a teacher at the former Lincoln Elementary School in 1962 and became principal of South Davis Elementary in 1976 and superintendent of schools in 1982.

At the College of Education, Stoddart teaches courses leading to the Advanced Certificate that prepares candidates to be a school building leader. Additional courses address ethics, testing and measurement, child abuse, drugs and alcohol abuse and school fire and violence prevention. He is chair of the Academic Dispositions Concerns Review Board and a member of the Honors and Awards Committee, both in the College of Education.

Stoddart has delivered numerous keynote addresses at conferences held at the local, regional and state levels. Prior awards received by Stoddart include Citizen of the Year in Orchard Park in 1980 and Superintendent of the Year in New York State in 2001.

Stoddart has a doctoral degree in education, with a concentration in elementary education and geography, from the University of Northern Colorado, and two M.S. degrees, in administration and supervision, and education, with a social studies concentration, and a B.S. in elementary education and related fields, all from the State University at Buffalo.

A longtime resident of Orchard Park, Stoddart and his wife, Peggy, are the parents of two grown sons, William and John.