Lillian W. Hunt Roux

Lillian W. Hunt, a graduate of the Massachusetts School of Art with the degree of B.S.E., was the art supervisor of the Billerica public schools for more than thirty years. The superintendent's report for 1936 announced that on January 1 "Miss Lillian W. Hunt, a graduate of the Massachusetts School of Art, will take up the work of Miss Dow," Dorothy Dow having left to become grade supervisor of art in Dedham. As Supervisor of Drawing, later Supervisor of Art, she planned the drawing lessons taught by the grade teachers, and taught the art courses in the junior high and high school, including a course in dress design for girls.

Her first report, for 1937, set out the principles she kept to: "We believe that every child may find self-satisfactory expression and self-confidence in some drawing or hand work," and that each child should be exposed to "as many different stimuli" as possible. The pupils' drawings were shown to the town at an annual exhibition in June. By 1940 she had written a course of study for drawing fitted to the Billerica schools, the high school drawing course had doubled its enrolment in four years, and she was asking for a small "studio" classroom where talented junior high and high school students could have individual instruction. In 1944 she wrote that "in Billerica we have built up, over eight years, an Art program that is proving itself equal to similar programs in most other school systems."

At Howe High School she appeared among the faculty in the yearbooks of the 1940s, and from 1953 the school reports list her as Lillian W. Roux. As the town grew after the war, so did her department. In 1962 the elementary program alone meant planning and supervising art for 2,983 pupils in 85 classes, and in 1964 she counted 4,476 of the 5,591 pupils in the schools taking part in the art curriculum. In 1965 she reported that the State Director of Art Education, Dr. Robert Bertolli, regarded Billerica "as having a School Department which offers the best in Art Education to all its students." By 1967 she signed her report as Coordinator of Art Education; that year, with the help of the Director of School Libraries, the department was buying visual aids and films for the teaching of art appreciation at every grade level.

Her students' work also reached the town reports. In 1969 the Board of Selectmen, wanting a report that would reflect "the Town of TODAY," worked with Mrs. Roux and Mr. Marchi of the Memorial High School art department on a design competition for the cover among the advanced art students, and thanked them "for the extra time and effort." The 1969 report won second place from the Massachusetts Selectmen's Association, and the competition was repeated under her direction for the 1970 report.

References

1. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1936 (Miss Lillian W. Hunt to take up the work of Miss Dow on January 1)
2. Report of the Drawing Supervisor, 1937 (aims of the art department; signed Lillian W. Hunt)
3. Town report 1970: Town Report Cover competition continued under Mrs. Lillian W. Roux; 1969 report won second place from the Massachusetts Selectmen's Association
4. Report of Supervisor of Drawing, 1940 (course of study, request for a studio classroom; signed Lillian W. Hunt)
5. Supervisor of Art Education, 1944, p. 178 (signed Lillian W. Hunt, Supervisor of Art)
6. Howe High School Yearbook 1947, The Faculty, p. 4 (no. 9, Lillian W. Hunt, Mass. School of Art, B.S.E., Art; photograph)
7. Art Education report, 1964, p. 149 (4,476 pupils in the art curriculum; signed Lillian W. Roux, Supervisor)
8. Art Education report, 1965, p. 156 (Dr. Robert Bertolli; signed Lillian W. Roux, Supervisor of Art Education)
9. Art Education report, 1967 (signed Lillian W. Roux, Coordinator of Art Education)
10. Town report 1969: Town Report Cover Design Competition (Mrs. Lillian W. Roux and Mr. Marchi, Memorial High School art department)