Obituary of Amy Mogland

Amy Mogland died peacefully at her home in Somerset, NJ, on
March 18, 2025. She was born in Neptune in 1948 and lived her 77
years as a Jersey girl. But her passion for learning and dedication
to teaching others extended far beyond the walls of her classrooms
and the boundaries of her home state.
A 1966 graduate of Freehold Regional High School, Amy attended
Douglass College (Rutgers University), earning a BA in history. She
was accepted into the Urban Education Corps, where she earned
an MA in education while concurrently teaching in the Newark
public school system. She then went on to spend 38 years teaching
in Hillsborough Township, inspiring countless young students to
embrace lifelong learning. For more than ten years, she also taught
night classes for juniors and seniors at the North Plainfield Adult
High School.
Amy's belief in the value of education was evident in her eclectic
pursuits. She wrote a student program on the Electoral College for
the Taft Institute of Government and Civic Education. She took
summer classes on the civil rights movement and jazz at the
The University of Mississippi won a grant to study Islam for educators
at a mosque in New Mexico and participated in a three-year
program on the U.S. Constitution at Princeton University.
She was a recipient of a Mandel Fellowship at the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, where she wrote a newsletter
used for teaching the Holocaust in high school classes. For many
years, she was also active with the New Jersey Education
Association and served on Government Relationships
committee of the Somerset County Education Association.
In 1997, she was the Somerset County Teacher of the Year and a
finalist for New Jersey Teacher of the Year. And in 2015 she
achieved her goal of visiting all 50 of the United States, driving to
many of them during summers off.
Amy is survived by her sisters, Beth Schurgin and Lisa Gunn
(Stephen), niece Tasha, nephews Matthew, Alex, and Dillon, and a
wonderful significant other. She will also be missed by the many
students who kept in touch with her as they continued their
education journeys and eventually became parents of the students
in her classes. Even after retirement, it was rare for Amy to go
anywhere in the county without being greeted by former students.
And she was loved.