Barsanti Family Fund

This fund was established at the time of Mary Barsanti’s death after a five-year battle with breast cancer. A graduate of Our Lady of Nazareth Academy in 1953 (class valedictorian), Mrs. Barsanti received her degree in Biology from Emmanuel College. She began her career in research, but her true love was teaching science on the junior high and high school level. She had been associated with the Wakefield school system since 1980, teaching at the junior high at the time of her death. This fund has a preference for a student majoring in science.

The fund was renamed in 2012, following the death of Mary’s husband Benito (Ben). Mr. Barsanti was raised in Wakefield and was a graduate of Wakefield High School. He was also a graduate of Middlebury College, 1951 and Boston College Law School, 1958. During the Korean Conflict he served in the U.S. Army. Mr. Barsanti practiced law in Wakefield for many years. He was a member of the Bear Hill Golf Club, the Sons of Italy and the Kiwanis Club. He was also a member of the Gamaliel Painter’s Cane Society at Middlebury College and served on the Board of Directors of the Wakefield TSF and the Hartshorne House.

Their daughter, Elena Barsanti, 50, an artist and musician, died in July 2017, at her home in Keaau, Hawaii, after a 15-month battle with leukemia. For Elena, making art was essential to life. She was happiest when she was painting or embroidering, making stained glass or, especially, singing. She was known in Hilo for singing at the weekly farmers’ market, partly to attract customers, but mostly just for the joy of it.