CUMBERLAND — Jane Dawson liked to say she was the supervisor of anything and everything controversial. But the late Allegany County Board of Education president, wife, mother and grandmother never backed down from a challenge.

Dawson, 76, died of cancer late Friday night at the Braddock campus of the Western Maryland Health System. She began her 30-year career with the Allegany County public school system as a consultant in family life in 1968 — long before it was commonplace to talk about such things with students inside the classroom.

“Back in the 70s when teaching or even discussing sex or drugs in the schools was considered taboo, Jane approached these ticklish subjects in the Family Life course with a concern for the students,” said Enordo “Moose” Arnone, who knew Dawson for more than 40 years and worked together with her as teachers, administrators and board members.

“She did her best to answer all their (questions). She did that rather well. This woman was one of a kind ... above all, students were No. 1. Jane was always there for the students and they relied on her to be open and straightforward.”

Current board member Karen Treber said the Baltimore native “dedicated her life to education and believed that every child could be successful.”

“She never gave up on a child and she was an inspiration to teachers and students for more than four decades,” Treber said in an e-mail to the Times-News. “Our county has lost a tireless advocate for education and a great lady.”

Board member Tom Striplin said the board, and the community, lost a good friend.

“We’ll definitely miss her contributions that she gave to the school system,” Striplin said.

Striplin said Dawson be-lieved in forming curriculum to meet the challenges of today’s students and advocated that foreign language be taught at an earlier age for kids.

“She didn’t really settle for the status quo,” he said. “Jane wanted to continually improve the system.”

While active on various committees and volunteer groups, Dawson regularly took the last few minutes of every public board meeting to highlight a product of the public school system who has achieved success elsewhere. Striplin said it was because Dawson “wanted the public and the community to know that many of our graduates are successful.”

“I think there’s a perception, at times, that people from Allegany County aren’t successful,” Striplin said. “Jane almost made it a mission to let people know how many successful people do come from Allegany County. Jane is definitely going to be missed by a lot of people.”

Arnone said that while Dawson was typically “a soft-spoken, gentle lady who used those qualities to her advantage ... when she had a concern about which she felt strongly, she would become emphatic to get her point across. As a board member, I often played the devil’s advocate with Jane and I knew that I had met my match. Jane was an exceptional human being and she will be greatly missed ...”

Dawson is survived by her husband, Dr. Robert J. Dawson, daughter Janie Heiertz and her husband Jim and grandson L.J.; son Bobby Dawson; her sister Ethel Lee Myer and her husband Bob; her brother James Morris and his wife Susan; niece Jenny, nephew Danny, another niece Heather Morris; cousins Janice Harbaugh and her family and the Wigglesworth families.

Friends will be received at the Scarpelli Funeral Home, 108 Virginia Ave., Cumberland on Sunday from 7 to 9 p .m. and Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Funeral services will be conducted at First Presbyterian Church on Washington Street, Cumberland, on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Pastor John Dillon will officiate. There will be a one-hour visitation at the church before the service.

Interment will be in Sunset Memorial Park, Bedford Road, Cumberland.

Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.