Historical Society Rededicates School Room to Former Educator

The Tewksbury Historical Society met Thursday to rededicate a room at the North Street School for former teacher Ruth Tingley Anderson.

The plaque marking the room had been lost for decades and was recently recovered by the Historical Society. Anderson, a Tewksbury elementary school teacher, taught for over 30 years at several schools in Tewksbury, the former Foster School, and the old Shawsheen School.

School Department officials dedicated a room at North Street to Anderson upon her retirement from teaching. For years a plaque hung outside a room that functioned in the school as both a library and a classroom during different periods. That plaque eventually went missing.

David Marcus, president of the Historical Society, believes an addition to the school in the 1970’s was probably the reason for the disappearance. Rebecca Volpe, Anderson’s granddaughter, began looking for the plaque after starting her family history in 2002. The Historical Society received permission from the school to search the school’s basement and found the plaque in a corner, partially disassembled.

“The important thing is it’s back, and we’re going to put it up on the wall,” said David Marcus, the director of the Historical Society. “That’s what the Historical Society does, preservation. We try to preserve things that are Tewksbury history.”

“It’s in fairly decent condition, considering I think it has been here, there, and everywhere over the last few decades,” said Vulpe.

Vulpe donated the picture that now accompanies the plaque, a 1950 photograph of Anderson in the Foster School. Foster School still stands in Tewksbury next to the new police station, though is now used for condominiums.

Anderson’s long career at various Tewksbury schools touched the lives of many students. Anderson taught Tippy Burgess, now 90 years old and a member of the Historical Society, in the first, second, and third grades at the old Shawsheen School in the late 1920’s.

“I remember that she was the nicest teacher I ever had,” said Burgess. Anderson also taught Burgess’s oldest daughter at the North Street School. At that time, Burgess said, Anderson had returned from retirement after her children were grown.

“She seemed to be a lot of people’s teachers in this area,” said Volpe. Anderson’s influence extended not just to students, but to her own daughter as well. Volpe’s mother followed in Anderson’s footsteps, also teaching in Tewksbury, Andover, and a few neighboring towns. Volpe described teaching in her family as a “tradition.”

Volpe was just happy the plaque found its way back to its original home.

“It meant so much to her having the library named after her when she retired, she had done a lot for the town,” said Volpe. “She had dedicated her career to teaching.”

Marcus said that the plaque will hang in the North Street School outside room #1 so that students will “be aware of what was partly the history here at school.”