Lloyd G. Blanchard (1917-2011)

By James VanBever (Sept/Oct 2021)
Westford Museum Musings Newsletter, October and December  2021

Towns and cities often name schools and municipal buildings after prominent citizens who had a positive impact on their communities.  However, as time goes by the names on these buildings and schools just become names, and the people whom they were named after are often forgotten. 

 But one building in Westford whose namesake has not been forgotten and probably never will is the Lloyd G. Blanchard Middle School. The school was named after Mr. Blanchard after it was built in 1986. Lloyd Blanchard was Westford Superintendent of Schools from 1957 to 1982.

 He was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1917. Once asked about his birth in Massachusetts, Lloyd answered in a light-hearted manner that the “family happened to be there for the winter”.  However, the young Blanchard spent most of his youth in North Conway, New Hampshire where he attended local schools until his junior year when he transferred to Phillips Andover High School in Andover, Massachusetts. From Andover, Lloyd Blanchard entered Dartmouth College where he received a degree in math in 1940.

  Following his graduation from Dartmouth College, Blanchard started his long career in education when he was hired to teach mathematics in Sarasota, Florida.  But he was only in his second year of teaching when World War II broke out and he returned to North Conway to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. 

 Because of his degree in mathematics, Lloyd was sent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied meteorology and weather forecasting. This would play an important role in Blanchard’s military career. He would then be stationed in England prior to Operation Overlord which was the code name for the invasion of Normandy or D-Day.

The future Westford Superintendent of Schools gave accurate weather forecasts to the B-26 Bomber pilots of the 323rd Bomber Group prior to their missions. Even though weather forecasters were in short supply and were not risked in combat missions, Mr. Blanchard was able to get on board for a few combat flights. One of those flights occurred six days after the Normandy invasion. Lloyd stated that when he was flying over the English Channel that there were so many ships in the channel that it almost seemed possible to walk over the decks of the ships without getting wet. He was also impressed by the number of aircraft that were stacked in the skies.

Mr. Blanchard’s bomber group was one of the first to be stationed in France after the D-Day invasion. While in France, Blanchard was decorated for his role in forecasting the weather (with the assistance of the French underground) over the Ardennes Forest that allowed Allied aircraft to help relieve the 101st Airborne Division which was under siege during the Battle of Bastogne. Lloyd left the service in 1945 as a major and received the Croix de Guerre, Bronze Star, and Air Medal. 

After the war, he returned to school under the G.I. Bill and received a Master of Education degree from Harvard College. Lloyd then returned to the classroom teaching math at Reading High School where in his second year of teaching he met his future wife Peg who was also a teacher. The couple would marry in 1949 and  would move to Darien, Connecticut where Lloyd had taken the position as assistant superintendent. It was in Connecticut that he and Peg had their two children, Kevin and Heather. 

Lloyd would spend seven years in Darien, Connecticut as assistant superintendent. It was in Darien that he gained valuable administrative experience that led to his hiring as Westford’s School Superintendent in 1957 which would be the beginning of a 22-year tenure that saw tremendous growth and innovation in the Westford school system. 

As the town of Westford grew in population, the need for more classroom space also grew. Under Mr. Blanchard tenure, Westford constructed and opened the Nabnasset School, the Colonel John Robinson School, the Norman E. Day School., and the new Westford Academy. He also supervised the daunting tasks of transferring some 800 students from the old Westford Academy which became the Abbot School to the new building on Patten Road and another transfer of 700 students from the North Middle School to the Abbot.

He was also an innovator in the concepts he brought to Westford schools. For example, when the Colonel John Robinson elementary school was built in the early 1970’s, it was “designed to cluster classrooms by grades” and to create a balanced heterogeneous classroom.  This concept was the precursor to team teaching.

In the late 1970’s, Superintendent Blanchard also introduced Participatory Type Management. Under this plan, all   school administrators met with the superintendent on a bi-weekly basis to discuss school issues. Today, this is common practice, but at the time it was groundbreaking. Said former School Superintendent John Crisafulli: “Lloyd did that long before others did it, I think that was one of his major accomplishments”

 Despite all Mr. Blanchard’s accomplishments as superintendent, including Westford becoming a top tier school system, the opening of new schools and the management of school growth.   His most important contribution may have been his vision of education that he left the town.  According to John Crisafulli, Mr. Blanchard believed that “children come first. We do what’s best for the children.” ……..to be continued.

After Lloyds Blanchard retired as Westford’s school superintendent in 1982, the Friends of the Westford Museum invited him to a meeting and told him that he was now president. This would be the start of a busy second chapter for the man who had led Westford schools for 25 years.

It was under the leadership of Mr. Blanchard that the Westford Museum came into being. Lloyd and others took an old empty fire house on Boston Road, which had been the site of the original Westford Academy and at little cost to the town helped turned it into the museum that we all know and love today. Former museum director Ken Tibbetts stated that during the early years of the Westford Museum “Lloyd Blanchard was the person solely responsible for keeping the museum doors open.”

Lloyd, Alex Belida, and Lew English known as the “Three Musketeers” would go to the museum each Wednesday to donate their time and services. The three built sump pumps, moveable partitions, painted, built and installed shelves, cleaned the basement, installed a bathroom and an electrical heater. They also took care of the lawn, trimming tree branches, and shoveled snow in the winter. However, the duties at the museum would only be a part of Mr. Blanchard’s post retirement years. In addition to becoming a member of the Westford Academy trustees, Lloyd would continue to scan the Westford Eagle each week for information on Westford Academy graduates who had reached the rank of Eagle Scout and send them a letter of congratulations. He would also send letters of praise to former students involved in community service; Mr. Blanchard would always go out of his way to acknowledge Westford Academy alumni on their accomplishments in life.

Mr. Blanchard continued his work with the Westford Rotary which he had been a member since its inception in 1971. He had served as president for one term. In his work as a Rotarian, Lloyd promoted fundraising efforts for seniors graduating from Westford Academy. He was also a highly active member of the First Parish Church United in Westford.

During his later years, the former superintendent remained active in supporting his alma mater, Dartmouth College. He organized fundraisers and college class reunions. An avid fly fisherman, Mr. Blanchard was also a member of Trout Unlimited and helped stock trout in local lakes, streams, and rivers. 

He and wife Peg enjoyed traveling and the couple attended the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France in June 1994. If one has ever attended a Westford Town meeting, one knows that it is rare to see voters rise to their feet and give a standing ovation to a town meeting motion. But that is exactly what happened on May 5,1990, when George Murray introduced a motion to name the new middle school after former superintendent Lloyd G. Blanchard. Of course, the vote was unanimous, and it guaranteed Mr. Blanchard is a well-deserved place in Westford history. On reflecting on the life of Lloyd G. Blanchard, Paul Murray said that Lloyd was fond of the humorist Will Rogers famous quote that “he never met a man I didn’t like. Paul thought that this quote fit Mr. Blanchard well considering Lloyd’s profound sense of humor and his innate ability to get along with people. Another quote that Lloyd was fond of and fits his gentle sense of humor was that “God made few perfect heads; the rest he covered with hair.”

Lloyd G. Blanchard died in Amherst, Massachusetts on August 27, 2011

Sources:

Lowell Sun, August 23, 1983, p. 9. “Retirement hasn’t slowed him down,” by Lauren McFallls.

Westford Eagle, May 17, 1990, p. 3. “Name of new middle school will answer “who was that guy for new generations,” by Gail Fenney.

Ibid, November 17, 1990, p. 3. “Town Meeting exposed its love affair with Lloyd Blanchard,” by Gail Fenney.

Ibid, September 1, 2011, p. 4. “Educator Remembered as Innovator,” by Joyce Pellino Crane.

Ibid, November 3, 2011, p. 11. Lloyd G. Blanchard.

Ibid, May 20, 1997, “Museum Musings.”