Former Barry School principal honored by city and colleagues

Date: 5/26/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- There were warm memories, amusing anecdotes and a few tears at a ceremony to honor a long-time Chicopee educator on Thursday.

Present and past staff of the Barry School, former students, elected officials met with members of the family of the late R. Purves Reardon to celebrate the educator's life with the dedication of the baseball field behind the school in his honor.

The field was named in his honor and a memorial bench was installed.

His widow Ellen said that he would have been honored.

Reardon was the principal of the Barry School from 1992 to 2001. He retired due to health reasons and passed away last November.

Sandy Stasiowski, a special education teacher at the school, said, "He did everything for the kids."

The reason the baseball field was picked a way to honor Reardon was that he spend almost every lunch-time playing ball with his students, Stasiowski explained.

She said that Reardon built a family relationship at the school among the students and the staff.

Stasiowski said that $300 had been raised to pay for the sign and the bench, but the city's Parks and Recreation Department paid for the two items and the money was donated to Lorraine's Soup Kitchen.

Former Barry School teacher Cynthia Nawrocki said that Reardon was "very kid oriented."

"He was always looking out for people and thought of everyone before himself," she added.

Dorothy Dooley, Reardon's long-time secretary, said the effort to honor Reardon started last December and she credited City Councilor and former teacher James Tillotson with spearheading the effort within the city government.

Reardon was a fifth grade teacher who reluctantly accepted a promotion to vice principal at the Selser School, according to several of his colleagues who spoke. He subsequently was assigned as principal at the Barry School.

The reluctance came from leaving the classroom and his wife explained, "He loved being in a classroom."

Chicopee School Superintendent Richard Rege was a teacher in Chicopee from 1975 to 1980 and knew Reardon a little at that time. He became better acquainted with him in 2001, the first year Rege was a principal in the city and Reardon's last year.

Rege said that humor was important to Reardon.

"He knew how to live life everyday," he recalled. "He was very kind to me an a young administrator."

He said that at the meetings of the city's principals with then Superintendent Barbara Cove, Reardon sat with him offering a humorous commentary and advice during the proceedings.

Rege recalled how Cove told him not to "listen to a word that man says."

"She said it with a laugh. She loved that man as well," he said.

Mayor Michael Bisssonette said that Reardon's dedication to education and his students was "more than a career -- it was a calling."