Miami Lakes resident and an advocate for education and equality for female athletes, Marjorie Wessel, was recently honored for her accomplishments at her alma mater, Florida State University.
During FSU’s annual Emeritus Alumni Association Society banquet last week in Tallahassee, Wessel was recognized for promoting female sports in high school and college as president of the local Sports Society as well as her achievements in sports.
The matriarch of the Wessel family, which excelled in sports, said she was excited and humbled to be honored by her alma mater, where it all started.
For more than 30 years, the Sports Society and Delta Psi Kappa recognize female student-athletes and coaches for great performances in the classrooms and on the field during the Women Athletes: Reach for the Stars ceremony attended by local sports dignitaries.
Educating students was Wessel’s true life calling.
Following college graduation, she started her teaching career in Tallahassee and later taught at Leon High School, Benjamin Franklin Elementary and North Miami Junior High School.
Later, she became an assistant principal at Filer Middle and Hialeah Middle schools, Hialeah Miami Lakes, American and Miami Norland high schools.
Wessel was also an adjunct professor at Barry University and she is currently an interim director of Doctors Charter School in Miami Shores.
She has given 50 years of her life to the education of youth.
Wessel also was a great athlete.
She won the South Florida Conference Championship as a tennis player and later was a star on her basketball, softball, swimming and track teams at St. Mary’s Catholic High School.
In basketball, she averaged a then-record 25 points a game and led her team to the school’s only state title.
Her children and grandchildren have followed in her footsteps.
Her three children, Joseph, Margaret Wessel Scott and Anne Marie Wessel Indorf were all inducted into the Monsignor Edward Pace High School’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Scott is currently the Activities director at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, and Indorf is the recreational supervisor for the village of Miami Shores.
Joseph Wessel played football at FSU under the legendary Bobby Bowden.
Marjorie Wessel’s grandson plays for the Boston Red Sox minor league organization.