Today's page features the usual array of photos of students working, playing, being teenagers, etc. That's what I do here, and it's altogether fitting to continue that practice today, despite our sadness. Students from Andover are aware of what happened early this morning, but most students and newer faculty cannot know how tough it was--at dawn--to learn that Roger and Mary Pellerin had perished in a house fire just down the street from school. 

In 1976, Mary moved from the Housekeeping staff to become the first secretary for a nascent Alumni and Development Office. In this role, she was the primary contact for countless graduates who had had little contact with Proctor for decades. She was hugely successful: loving in a motherly manner, funny, smart, bawdy and altogether lovable. In 1992, she became secretary to the Office of Multicultural Education, when Proctor became the first school in the nation to complete a multicultural assessment, and she retired in 1994.

Roger served Proctor in many positions....most recently in Housekeeping, where he maintained an outrageously funny, falsely-cantankerous role with all of us. In recent years, Mary was rarely seen due to physical issues, but Roger was often assailing people from Jake's Market, or at the transfer station, chiding me--for example--with, "Do they pay you to do that job?!" and, "Why aren't you in the office, doing somthin' productive?" I loved them, and the people of Andover loved them.

Here are Mary and Roger twenty years ago, when they worked together at Proctor. Notice the smiles.



Roger and Mary were not in good physical shape in recent years, yet the horror of death by conflagration is very upsetting. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob and Joe Pellerin (both) Class of 1988. 

Perhaps the best I can do in this circumstance is to draw our attention to the good people who make Proctor run from behind the scenes, for that is what Pellerins did.

 

Depending on your counting measurement, we have approximately 85 teachers. But this school could not function without 100 additional heroes who maintain campus safety all night long, or those who rise at 4:00 AM to prepare classrooms and hallways. Then there are the folks who staff the Health Center 24 hours a day.....

 

Then there's Buildings & Grounds--otherwise known as Maintenance--a team that serves a physical plant comprised of 50-something structures, acres of fields and--oh yes--the finest privately operated ski area in existence.

 

(You were expecting a photo of the ski area, but my focus is on people, here.) 

 

Today, in response to the tragedy of Mary's and Roger's deaths, I was interviewed by newspaper and television crews from Concord and Boston. I was moved by how emotionally moved they were...through interaction with the people of Andover. This is a special community. One reporter revealed that several Pizza Chef waitstaff burst into tears at the mention of the Pellerins' names. We are fortunate to live in a town that has a center in which we really know one another.





 

And so, we will go on with our work. But let us dedicate our work to good causes and good people. Mary and Roger Pellerin were unassuming, good people. They made Proctor a better place, and they made the world a better place, and we miss them.