The Melrose High School Permanent Scholarship Fund
Trustees and Founders Scholarship

In 2026, the Melrose High School Permanent Scholarship Fund Board of Directors voted to rename the General Scholarship as the Trustees and Founders Scholarship to honor the community leaders who established the Melrose High School Permanent Scholarship Fund and the Trustees who have guided it for more than six decades.

The Fund’s beginnings trace to 1958, when Richard R. Pierce, president of the Melrose Citizens Education Council, proposed creating a permanent scholarship fund to help Melrose High School graduates continue their education. An initial $200 was set aside to launch the effort. Over the next several years, Pierce, Kenneth R. Norris, and then MHS Principal Howard Wilder worked together to build the foundation of what would become a lasting community institution.

In 1960, the Fund was formally established in partnership with the Melrose High School Parent-Teachers’ Association. The first organizing committee, Kenneth R. Norris, A. Imrie Dixon, Leon Buttrick, and Richard Franklin, developed the structure of the new organization and adopted its then motto: “There is only one thing more expensive than education, and that is—lack of it.”

In 1961, the first officers were elected: John Buddington (Chairman), Hilda Creelman (Secretary), and George V. Newhall (Treasurer), supported by a General Committee of dedicated volunteers. Others who contributed during the early 1960s included Francis Queeney, Charles Ledoux, Edward Raye, V.S. Lindahl, Gertrude Felt, Jo Ann Mayers, and John McGrath.

Trustees have played a central role in stewarding the Fund’s resources and strengthening community trust.
In the early years of the Fund, the Trustees were:
Thomas L. Thistle (1961)
Howard B. Wilder (1961)
Paul H. Messner (1961)

Additional Trustees known to have served in earlier years include:
Robert F. Lucas
Edwin J. Pingree
Edward W. Raye (later Honorary Trustee)
Paul H. Messer
Richard Flannigan

Their leadership helped guide the Fund through a period of growth and increased community engagement. Today, the Fund continues to be supported by a committed group of Trustees who uphold the same principles of stewardship and service established more than sixty years ago.

What began with $200 in 1961 has grown into a multi-million-dollar portfolio that supports hundreds of Melrose High School seniors each spring. The Trustees and Founders Scholarship stand as a tribute to the vision, generosity, and dedication that have sustained this Fund from its earliest days to the present.