Dan Rodricks

Well before the Internet, smart phones, email and text messaging – before almost all forms of communication we now take for granted – Anne Hynes took pen to paper to write thousands of greetings to daughters and sons of East Bridgewater. This went on for years, long after the many recipients of those birthday cards and thoughtful notes left the mother ship.

Anne knew what the teenage students passing before her desk at the high school library did not yet know – that, while life after graduation shines with potential, it also bristles with challenges; it smiles with opportunity but frowns with adversity. It gets lonely out there, so a note from the hometown provided the simple but most important thing an adult can give a young man or woman: Encouragement. It might not have seemed that way at the time – a birthday card, a short note with some news about a classmate – but her labor of love, arriving in the mail, meant that you were remembered. It meant the high school librarian’s interest in you – her support of your education and the pursuit of your dreams – continued long after you left EB High.

While there, she encouraged you to read and to learn, to think big, to find your bliss. She was Our Lady of Good Counsel, too, always willing to give advice to a confused teenager. Her interest in our well-being continued for years, even decades.

It was probably not her intent, but with all her cards and letters, Anne seemed to speak for the whole town – our parents and neighbors, our teachers and coaches, the people who gave us our start in life. It was her way of saying: Do your best, make us proud, we’re all still rooting for you.

The scholarship named for her extends in memoriam Anne’s devotion to the young people of East Bridgewater. It celebrates her generous spirit and encouraging nature.

By Dan Rodricks  (June 2024)