Schools

Former Hadley Principal and His School Both at the Century Mark

Keith Jordan anchored the Hadley in the mid part of the 20th century, but not without the help of many hands.

 

Keith Jordan and came up together.

About the time builders were laying the cornerstone and bricks for the Redington Street school in 1911, Keith was drawing some of his first breaths in Sebago Lake, Maine.

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It was a small village with a one-room school house that held six grades.

Later, he would anchor Swampscott's brick building by the sea as principal, starting in 1946, serving there or Hadley Junior High or the Alice Shaw Junior High until 1975.

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Keith is 101 and living in Peabody at a retirement community and he remembers well all the people who helped him run the school.

Alice Shaw, the previous Hadley principal, was a key figure in his start.

Faculty feared Alice Shaw when she was at the helm.

The first fellow who had become a Hadley principal after Alice Shaw had quit. Word was that Alice Shaw had made things difficult for him, Keith said.

Keith was a Rotarian and a friend in the local Rotary had some advice for him: "If I were you I'd go talk to Alice Shaw, I'd go talk to her," the friend told Keith.

He went to her home for a talk and when she found out that Keith's wife's family were Shaws from Maine, well, Alice Shaw gave Keith her endorsement and left him alone.

To this day Keith remembers all those who helped make Hadley a success.

The teachers ran a tight ship. He sought their counsel and they accepted his advice.

"They didn't go against my suggestions, they would follow them up," he said.

When he moved to a new principal position at another school in town he brought his entire staff with him.

He still has a picture of them at a luncheon before the move.

Keith coached baseball and he and the members of the state champ teams from the 1940s still have reunions.

Discipline at Hadley wasn't a problem.

The kids liked to fire spitballs at each other or make a whhaaaanging sound by tapping the metal hinge as they lifted their desk tops, he said.

The custodians, Frank Coletti and Wendy Jones were like brothers to him, he said, and they helped him dispose of the distracting desks.

A long paddle hung near a second floor washroom and he woud call it "my friend," as in, talking to some misbehaved kids, "You don't want to meet 'my friend.'"

Maybe two or three times he administered the paddle to children who were out of line.

"I used it different times," he said. "I'd be jailed, now."

The school had a strong staff.

There was Gertrude Morse who made soup and sandwiches for the teachers.

There was Dr. Palmer who accompanied the principal to the School Committee where the doctor and principal lobbied for more sanitary conditions in a school bathroom.

There was policeman Red Delano, who was a fixture at the corner of Redington and Humphrey.

The fire chief helped him gain both access and egress for rooms.

That always concerned Keith, he said. That there would be a fire and only one way out.

There was his secretary Gertrude Donlan, a great help, and his boss, Frank Manseur, a supportive man.

There was a terrific music department and band program.

Keith loves band music.

His favorite song?

"I can't give you anything but love, baby," he said, laughing.

He and his wife were married for 72 years.

She died a year ago.

Keith and the Hadley are still going.

As much as anyone with the exception of the school's namesake, Elizabeth Hadley, and Alice Shaw, Keith Jordan and the Hadley School are closely aligned.


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