Ronald B. Seely
Personal
Gender: Male
Date of Death: October 18, 2005
Birth Place: Frankfurt, MA
Death Place: Quincy, MA
Ronald B. Seely
RONALD SEELY, 52, AVON MIDDLE-HIGH PRINCIPAL
Ronald B. Seely was the principal of Avon Middle-High School, but he was a teacher at heart.
“Even when he was principal he taught a Spanish class at one point,” Dr. Margaret Frieswyk, Avon superintendent of schools, said yesterday of Dr. Seely, who died of pulmonary arrest Tuesday in Quincy Medical Center. He was 52.
Dr. Seely was principal of Avon Middle-High for five years. He previously was principal of Lawrence High School for a couple of years and taught special needs students. He was an assistant principal in the Boston public schools.
At Avon Middle-High, he helped minimize disruption during a $15 million renovation of the school that included a new gym, a larger art room, additional classrooms, and other improvements to the 50-year-old facility.
The project involved moving students to other schools and into temporary classrooms.
Dr. Seely said he sometimes felt like a football coach. “You have to know where all the players are at all times and what their roles are and be able to make changes,” he said in an article published in The Boston Globe in 2004.
The projects were delayed because of concerns about the impact on abutters’ water supplies.
“It was quite a challenge,” said Frieswyk, “but he maintained a sense of humor throughout.”
The renovations were completed earlier this year.
Born in Frankfurt, Dr. Seely grew up in Dorchester. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1975. He earned a master’s degree in special needs education at Regis College and a doctorate in education at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
“He stayed very current in educational research, ” said Frieswyk.
A member of the adjunct faculty at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy and the New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, he led workshops at the Principals’ Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In one workshop he suggested that a principal must be “prepared to be the lead learner or master teacher,” according to an Internet posting by the center.
“He was very approachable and made himself available, ” said Frieswyk. “He was a teacher at heart.”
Dr. Seely leaves his wife, Susete G. (Barbosa); a daughter, Susannah G. of Quincy; a son, Ronald B. of Arlington, Va.; four brothers, Albert L. Jr. of Wakefield, Richard F. of Mission Viejo, Calif., and Michael A. and David F. , both of Rockland; two sisters, Patti E. McClellan of Woodbury, Conn., and Anita F. Hart of Pembroke; and a grandson.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in First Congregational Church in Braintree. Burial will be in Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree.
Published in The Boston Globe on October 20, 2005 Page D13
