Irving Folk

Irving Folk (died 1973) was a Billerica Centre businessman who served on the Finance Committee in the 1950s and on the School Committee for most of the years from 1960 until his death, including a year as its chairman. In the late 1940s and the 1950s he ran Farmer's Filling Station on Boston Road, which advertised Esso products, tires, batteries and accessories in the Howe High School yearbooks; the 1949 advertisement names him and C. G. Howser, and the town's jury list of 1955 records him as the proprietor of the station, living on Concord Road.

He was appointed to the Finance Committee by the moderator, serving as its secretary in 1955 under chairman Charles W. MacRannolds and as its chairman in 1957, when he signed the committee's report on the year's transfers from the reserve fund and noted that, of its own $500 budget, $272 had gone to print 1,500 copies of its report for town meeting and the unspent balance had been "turned back to the Town." From 1956 he was an elected Town Meeting member for Precinct One, and he served on the moderator's Traffic Committee with Gilbert W. Griggs and Joseph M. Burke Jr. and, in 1961 and 1962, on the Permanent School Building Committee, the board that oversaw the construction of the town's new schools.

In March 1960 he was elected to the School Committee at the head of the poll, with 1,540 votes, and he was the committee's secretary when the 1962 Warrior yearbook pictured it with chairman Paul J. Heffernan and vice-chairman George F. Hickey Jr.. He finished third for two seats in 1963, behind Kenneth L. Buffum and Robert F. Loranger, but returned the next year, winning a one-year unexpired term with 1,664 votes, and he was re-elected in 1965, 1968 and 1971. He sat through the years of rapid growth in which the town built the Dutile, Kennedy and Hajjar elementary schools and the Locke and Marshall middle schools, serving with John T. Glavine, Andrew T. Card and Loranger; he was vice-chairman in 1969 and chairman in 1970, when Superintendent Frederick C. Riel reported that the middle schools under construction would soon be crowded.

Folk died suddenly on February 22, 1973, while still a member of the committee. The annual town meeting that March stood for "a moment of silence in memory of Irving Folk, a member of the School Committee who had recently passed away quite suddenly," and the town report listed him among its memorials for service on the School Committee from 1960 to 1973. The superintendent's report for the year called him "a loyal and dedicated friend" of the Billerica schools who had been a member of the School Committee "for many years and served as its chairman on several occasions."

References

1. Howe High School yearbook 1949, advertisements: Farmer's Filling Station, Irving Folk, C. G. Howser, Boston Road, Billerica
2. Billerica Town Report 1955, committees appointed by the moderator: Finance Committee, Irving Folk, Secretary
3. Billerica Town Report 1955, jury list 1955-1956: Folk, Irving, Concord Rd., proprietor, Farmer's Filling Station, Boston Rd.
4. Billerica Town Report 1957, report of the Finance Committee signed by Irving Folk, Chairman
5. Billerica Town Report 1960, annual election: School Committee (3 years), Irving Folk 1,540
6. Billerica Town Report 1961, Permanent School Building Committee appointed for 1961, including Irving Folk
7. Billerica Town Report 1963, annual election: School Committee, Buffum 1,923, Loranger 1,879, Folk 1,646
8. Billerica Town Report 1964, annual election: School Committee unexpired term, Irving Folk 1,664
9. Warrior yearbook 1962, p. 6: School Committee, portrait of Irving Folk, Secretary
10. Billerica Town Report 1970, School Committee: Irving Folk, Chairman
11. Billerica Town Report 1973, annual town meeting: moment of silence in memory of Irving Folk, who had recently passed away quite suddenly
12. Billerica Town Report 1973, In Memoriam: Irving Folk, School Committee 1960-1973, deceased February 22, 1973
13. Billerica Town Report 1973, Superintendent's report: death of Committee member Irving Folk, chairman on several occasions