Margaret M. Lanoue

07/25/2005

Margaret M. Lanoue, 88, of 66 Quincy St. died Monday at North Adams Regional Hospital after being stricken earlier in the day. She was a retired longtime educator and librarian at Drury High School and at the former North Adams State College, now Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Born in North Adams on March 9, 1917, daughter of Napoleon H. and Margaret Nugent Lanoue, she graduated from Drury High in 1934 and from North Adams State Teachers College in 1938, where she also earned a master's degree in education in 1945. She received her bachelor of science degree in library science at Syracuse University in 1946 and served as librarian at Utica College from 1946 to 1947. She was a founding member of the NASC Alumni Association and served as its president from 1940 to1942. Miss Lanoue began her teaching career in a one-room schoolhouse in Otis and Sunderland. She returned to North Adams in 1941 to become librarian at Drury High School. In 1948, she accepted then NASC President Grover C. Bowman's offer to serve as librarian, continuing in that position and teaching at Mark Hopkins School until her retirement in June 1979. She was chairwoman of the NASC education department from 1968 to 1970 and a member and chairwoman of many college committees. She also was known for her teaching of children's literature. During the 1975-76 academic year, Miss Lanoue received the Alpha Chi Honor Society's Outstanding Professor Award. She also held membership in Pi Lambda Sigma, the library honor society; Delta Kappa Gamma, the honor society for women in education, and Delta Psi Omega, the collegiate Dramatic Honor Society. In 1979, she was honored as the first female graduate of NASC to receive the Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumnae/Alumnus Award. In 1980, following the creation of boards of trustees at each campus, she was elected as the Alumni Association's first representative, serving from 1981 to 1987. During her tenure, she was chairwoman of the presidential search committee and of the committee on faculty, students and academic programs. In 1984, she was elected vice chairwoman of the board, and in 1986, chairwoman. In 1987, the board dedicated the Campus Alumni Suite in her honor in recognition of her more than 50-year association with the school. She was the first female to be so honored. Miss Lanoue was a member of the 1894 Society, having made a commitment to provide financial support to the college for three years. She also was a corporator of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Foundation Inc. She acted in many college plays over the years, and was well-known for appearing with Professor Frederick Bressette. She was a Women in Blue volunteer at North Adams Regional Hospital from 1978 to 1996 and a longtime member of the Monday Club of North Adams. She enjoyed reading, particularly mysteries. She was a lifelong communicant of St. Francis' Church and a daily 12:05 communicant of Masses at St. Anthony's Church. She leaves nieces and nephews. FUNERAL NOTICE -- Services for Margaret M. Lanoue will be Friday, July 29, 2005, at 10:15 at FLYNN & DAGNOLI-MONTAGNA HOME for FUNERALS, Central Chapels, 74 Marshall St., followed by a Liturgy of Christian Burial at 1 at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Burial will be in Southview Cemetery. Calling hours at the funeral home will be Thursday, July 28, from 7 to 9. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations are suggested for the MCLA Scholarship Fund or St. Francis' Church through the funeral home. Survivors include sister-in-law, Constance (Irace) Lanoue Briola of North Adams; nephew, John D. Lanoue and his wife, Katie, of Williamstown; niece, Frances Lanoue Mikhitarian and her husband, Charles Mikhitarian Jr., of Balston Spa, N.Y., and grandnieces and grandnephews, including Kelly and Mark Bertrand, Jon and Karen Foster, Eric and Trisha Foster, Christopher and Elizabeth Lanoue, and Brent Lanoue, and great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews. She was predeceased by her sister, Mary Lanoue, and brothers Napoleon H. Lanoue and the Rev. Francis Lanoue.

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