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Frank McCourt

Francis "Frank" McCourt (born August 19, 1930) is an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. After returning from World War II, he used the GI Bill to enroll in New York University. He received a Masters degree from Brooklyn College in 1958, and taught English at McKee High School and Stuyvesant High School in New York City (where he joined the American Federation of Teachers). At first he had trouble teaching, because his students were unruly and disobedient. But eventually McCourt became a very experienced teacher. He ending his teaching career after 30 years. McCourt received the Pulitzer Prize (1997) for his memoir Angela's Ashes (1996), which details his childhood as a poor Irish Catholic in Limerick.