Mary Cannon

Teaching English for the Alhambra Unified School district for 19 years, Mary Cannon has been guiding students with a sugar-sweet demeanor. She knew since her freshman year at Irving High School in Irving, Texas that she wanted to teach English after discovering that organizational study skills, such as color-coding notes, helped her, as well as others, remember information.

After attending seven colleges, including Dallas Baptist University (formerly known as Dallas Baptist College) and California State University, Los Angeles, where she worked for eight years in the student office helping people with disabilities, she earned a degree in English. When a program for the deaf in the Pasadena School District was closed, a job opportunity opened at AHS.

With an evident passion for her students, Cannon offers advice to graduating seniors: “Know everything you can about language and how it works because if you know what the language is asking of you, you can give your best [and] most clear answer back. Language is the key for everything.”

In her retirement, Cannon plans on returning back to Pasadena City College to enroll in library tech courses.

By Staff Writer Michelle Paulino