Elizabeth F. McCarthy

Dr. Elizabeth F. McCarthy (died 2001) spent more than half a century in the Billerica schools, first as a teacher at the Talbot School and then as the founding principal of the Frederick J. Dutile School, while serving the town for decades on the Housing Authority and in Town Meeting. The Howe High School graduating class of 1935 included an Elizabeth Frances McCarthy, probably the same woman.

She trained at Lowell Teachers College (B.S.E.), and in 1940 the superintendent reported that "Miss Elizabeth McCarthy, a recent Lowell Teachers' College graduate," had been hired at the Talbot School in North Billerica, where she lived. She taught there for twenty three years, mostly in the first and second grades, and was the school's assistant principal from the mid 1950s. She kept studying while she taught: by 1955 the school reports list a master of education degree from Calvin Coolidge College, and by 1957 a doctorate in education, and she signed her later reports "Elizabeth F. McCarthy, Ed.D."

In 1963 she became principal of the Howe Elementary School, then housing four fifth grade classes, most of whose pupils came by bus from East Billerica; in her first report she thanked colleagues for guiding "this novice in the field of administration." In 1964 she was a principal at the Parker School. When the Frederick J. Dutile School opened in March 1965 she became its first principal, reporting 584 pupils in its first year, arranging for the school to give demonstration classes for music students from the State College at Lowell, and hosting the Merrimack Valley elementary principals. By 1967 the building, planned for 630 children, held more than 700. She led the Dutile School until 1993.

She was a town meeting member from 1956 to 1999 and sat on the Housing Authority from the early 1970s until she resigned in August 2000, representing it on the Council on Aging in the 1970s and serving as its chairman in the 1990s. She also served on the Local Growth Policy Committee (1976), the School Building Study Committee (1980-1982), the Howe High School Study Committee (1983-1984), the Municipal Building Use Study Committee (1986-1988) and the By-Law Review Committee (1992). For many years she lived at 20 Rogers Street. She died on September 20, 2001. The Housing Authority remembered her as "a dear friend and loyal Housing Authority member for over 20 years," and the town included her in its memorial list for 2002.

References

1. In Memoriam, 2002
2. Howe High School Graduates, 1935
3. Superintendent of Schools Report, 1940 (hired at the Talbot School)
4. Howe Elementary School Report, 1963
5. Frederick J. Dutile School Report, 1965
6. Frederick J. Dutile School Report, 1967
7. Town Officers, 1990 (Housing Authority)
8. Housing Authority Report, 2001

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.