Bernice O. Bazley Fund

Bernice O. Bazley, Buzz, as she was affectionately called by her friends, was born August 7, 1908, in a two room cabin on what is now Old Nahant Road in Wakefield. She was the daughter of the late Warren and Harriet Bazley. She died on October 16, 2004 at the Harborside Nursing Center in Wakefield.

Buzz attended Wakefield Public Schools and was in the first graduating class that moved from the Lafayette Building to the Atwell High School. She graduated at 16 years old. Buzz continued her education and received a teaching certificate from Salem Normal School, which today is Salem State College. She went on to receive a B.S. in Education from Boston University and did graduate work at Boston University, Harvard, and the University of Colorado. She taught English to grades seven and eight in the Wakefield Public Schools for forty years. When she started teaching in 1929, she was the only teacher in grades one through eight to have a college degree, as all the other teachers had Normal School Certificates only.

She taught at the Woodville School from 1929 to 1939, the Lincoln School from 1939 to 1950, then back to the Woodville from 1950 to 1955. She taught at the Atwell School from 1955 until the opening of the Junior High School in 1960, from which she retired in 1969.

Bernice never married and during her summer vacations she traveled extensively to Europe, South America, and was particularly fond of England and the Scandinavian countries. She loved traveling on the water and spent many trips on canal boats, freighters, cruise ships, and windjammers.

Buzz spent many hours walking in Breakheart Reservation, and when she was teaching, would go for a four or five mile walk before going to school. After school she would work in her large garden and woodlot. As an English teacher, words were important to her. She seldom met a crossword puzzle she could not complete. She was a fixture in her Old Nahant neighborhood for eighty-seven years, until she moved to the Boit home in 1995.

The First Baptist Church in Wakefield was an important part of Buzz’s life. Her many friends created this scholarship in her honor.