Bisacre Family Scholarship Fund

Following the tragic death of Lee Ann Bisacre-Goodwin in 1990, her parents, Robert and Ethel Bisacre, their family and close friends established a memorial fund in her memory. Lee Ann graduated from Wakefield Memorial High School (WMHS) in 1983. A special needs student, she thrived in the classrooms of loving, caring, and professional educators at WMHS to reach her maximum potential as a student and in life. She married Barry Goodwin in 1985 and lived on Preston Street. Lee Ann worked at Guillows on Water Street for over seven years and Barry, who passed away in 2011, worked at Wakefield Memorial High School as a custodian for twenty years. Prior to Lee Ann’s death, the couple were often seen together at town and high school sporting events, Wakefield restaurants, and the Civic Center for Bingo nights.

Robert and Ethel Bisacre, lifelong residents of Wakefield, graduated from WHMS together in 1956 and were married in 1957. A standout athlete and dominant football player at WMHS, Bob received a full scholarship to the Rose Bowl Champion Michigan State and later transferred to Wyoming University where he was the captain of the Wyoming Cowboys football team in 1961 and was the first local athlete to appear on television in the Senior Bowl, coached by legendary coach Tom Landry, in Mobile, Alabama, starting as a linebacker. Bob went on to play professional football for four years in the Canadian Football League playing linebacker for the Montreal Alouettes and later for the Ottawa Rough Riders, before returning to Wakefield to take a teaching position at WMHS. An educator, coach and mentor for over forty years, Bob taught physical education, coached gymnastics, baseball, and high school football, including twenty years with WMHS as an assistant coach and head coach and additional coaching stints with Saugus and Marblehead during the latter part of his coaching career. Bob was elected to the WMHS Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000, his football number “18” is retired and hangs in the Charbonneau Field House at WMHS and he is still considered one of the best football players from the Town of Wakefield. Ethel Bisacre, the loving wife to Bob for over sixty years, mother of four and grandmother of eight, dedicated her adult life to the raising of her children and support to the town of Wakefield. A career legal secretary, Ethel worked for the town counselors’ office for over twenty years and an additional fifteen years for a law firm in Boston. She volunteered her expertise to support multiple town events, including town hall meetings, town council and school committee meetings, and was seen during every election at the polling stations. Ethel loved her children and grandchildren deeply, was quick to finish a crossword puzzle, very rarely lost at Scrabble and loved her family reunions on the family lake house on Mountain Williams Pond in Weare, NH. Ethel passed away in March of 2015 and Bob joined Ethel in heaven two years later in March of 2017.

In loving memory of Barry and Lee Ann Goodwin-Bisacre and Robert and Ethel Bisacre, the Bisacre family, Colonel Retired Michael Bisacre (WMHS Class of 1976) of Annapolis, Maryland; Elaine Manning (WMHS Class of 1982) of Wakefield, Massachusetts; and Brigadier General Retired Brian Bisacre (WMHS Class of 1985) of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, are committed through this scholarship fund to support WMHS and their outstanding students who aspire to be life-long educators.