Dracut School Committee member Rebecca Duda visits Laurie Archambault’s Englesby Elementary kindergarten classroom on Read Across America Day in March. Front row, from left: Alejandro Landaverde, Kathleen Russo, Reagan Vinal, Charlotte Moran, Mira Medina and Brayden Hayes. Middle row, from left: Samantha Sorensen, Julian Ngumba, Irena Wassilak and Nayla Williams. Back row, from left: Duda, Diego Cabral, Samara Ponte, Dylan Bernos and Jameson Ngumba. (Courtesy of Laurie Archambault)
DRACUT — School is out and summer is officially underway. It’s time to start summer reading while sitting by the pool or on the beach. The students in Mrs. Laurie Archambault’s kindergarten class at George Englesby Elementary School have definitely started their summer reading. When I visited them for Read Across America Day last March, the students were excited to see the classroom and learn how to read.
During our visit in March, they had recently completed a two-week author study of Dr. Seuss. Ms. Archambault explained that this is one of her students’ favorite units each year. Students love reading Dr. Seuss’s whimsical stories, filled with colorful characters and rhyming sentences. Students extend their learning in a variety of ways during this unit, including making their own “The Cat in the Hat” headbands, publishing their own “Green Eggs and Ham” class book, and creating their own Rhyme Time Booklet.
That day, I told my students that Mr. Englesby, the man their school was named after, would be very proud of them for their dedication to reading. But since they didn’t know Mr. Englesby, the words didn’t mean much to them. So I promised to write for them the story of Mr. Englesby and why their school was named after him.
George Englesby Jr. was born in Dracut on April 21, 1907, at 32 School Street, to George H. and Rose (Lynch) Englesby. Like many children in the Navy Yard area, Englesby attended Parker Avenue School. Dracut did not have a high school at the time, so Englesby attended Lowell High School, graduating in 1925. After high school, Englesby worked as a newspaper reporter for the Lowell Sun for a time. He eventually decided to go back to school to become a teacher. He first enrolled at Boston College, but then transferred to Boston University. Englesby graduated from Boston University in 1940 with a degree in education.
After graduating from Boston University, Englesby returned to Dracut where he taught seventh and eighth grades. His teaching career was interrupted when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1942 for service in World War II. He was first stationed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he enrolled in the Army Radio School. Englesby was deployed overseas to the European Theater, serving as a radio operator with the 65th Fighter Wing in the Eighth Air Force in England.
After the war, Englesby returned to teaching in the Dracut Public Schools. He served in many positions in the school system over the years, including teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and briefly as superintendent. He served as superintendent when Superintendent Paul Phaneuf was deployed overseas during the Korean War. When Phaneuf returned, Englesby returned to his position as assistant superintendent, a position he held until his retirement.
Englesby remained active in retirement, working as a guidance counselor at Dracut High School and serving in numerous civic organizations, including the Knights of Columbus, the American Legion, the Merrimack Valley Teachers Association and the Holy Name Society.
Englesby died suddenly of a heart attack on December 29, 1971. Because he was a beloved member of the Dracut community and a dedicated member of the education department for many years, the school board announced that Dracut Middle School would be renamed George H. Englesby Jr. Middle School. The board raised funds for letters to be hung on the front of the school building and commissioned a portrait of Englesby for the school’s lobby.
The dedication ceremony took place on Sunday, June 11, 1972. The guest speaker that day was former Dracut Superintendent Paul Phaneuf, who delivered a moving speech in honour of his old friend and colleague, Mr. Englesby. Mr. Phaneuf said Mr. Englesby was “extremely generous in all aspects of his life and dedicated to the students of Dracut.”
Fifty-three years after Englesby’s death, the Lakeview Avenue school that bears his name remains a reminder of his dedication to public service and will serve as an example of what we all should aspire to.
