NEWBURYPORT — With gold lettering on a crimson background, the Clipper-colored plaque honoring the late Mary E. Larnard – Newburyport High School’s first female principal – affixed above the office she called home for roughly 13 years was a fitting tribute to the lifelong educator, according to those who attended Tuesday’s ceremony.
If there was a tinge of sadness among the dozens of educators, bankers, elected officials, friends, family members and others who came together in the school’s main office, it was because she wasn’t there to watch them dedicate the space in her name.
“It came to be too late,” said Mark Welch, president of the Mary Alice Arakelian Foundation and a retired Institution for Savings president. “It would have been so much more meaningful if she were here.”
Larnard, who died this spring, spent her entire professional career at Newburyport High School. She was a mathematics teacher from 1965 to 1988, the mathematics and computer science department chair from 1977 to 1988, and then served as the first female principal from 1988 to 2001.
She was also the first female trustee of the Institution for Savings and the first female president of the Newburyport Rotary Club, as well as a longtime trustee of the Mary Alice Arakelian Foundation. She was highly regarded among colleagues and former students, the latter whom she often referred to as “my kids.”
It was the Mary Alice Arakelian Foundation, with help from Institution for Savings Executive Vice President Kim Rock, the Newburyport Education Foundation and others who made the naming ceremony possible Tuesday.
Welch said the honor is the educator’s version of naming the school’s football field after James T. Stehlin in 2015. Stehlin died in April 2023 at age 90.
“She blazed a trail and she blazed a trail by doing her job,” Welch said, minutes before the ceremony.
Asked what Larnard would have been thinking or feeling had she attended the ceremony, Welch said she would be laughing.
Rock overheard the question and jumped in.
“She’d been shaking her head,” Rock replied.
Welch came up with the idea of honoring Larnard shortly after her death and brought the idea forward. Rock then contacted NEF regarding naming rights to the office. Once that was secured, NEF and the Newburyport School Committee approved the proposal.
The Arakelian Foundation paid for the plaque, hiring Clipper Trophies to do the job. It was a process that began shortly after Larnard’s death in April and reached its apex during the moving 20-minute ceremony.
“A tribute and an honor,” Welch said.
Current Newburyport Principal Andrew Wulf called Larnard and the newly named office a model for him and future principals to strive for, adding that it says a lot about Newburyport’s dedication to education.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Wulf said before the ceremony.
Perhaps the most moving testimony came from current mathematics teacher and former Larnard student Mark Littlefield, who described her impact on his teaching career. Holding a mathematics book given to him by Larnard, Littlefield described her teaching style and how she not only transformed his life but the lives of her students.
A few moments later, Welch reached up to rip off the colored paper covering the plaque. Once it was unveiled, all those in attendance clapped loudly. They then hung around to munch on snacks and talk more about how much Larnard meant to the Newburyport school district.