Awards and generosity of Class of 1961 headline FA alumni banquet

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Foxcroft Academy alumni representing classes ranging from 1943-2003 gathered at the gymnasium Aug. 3 to reconnect with old friends, enjoy a fine meal and honor the achievements of Mr. Walter Beaulieu and Dr. Joseph Zilinsky ‘60.

    FOUR DECADES OF GRANTS — A nice turnout of Foxcroft Academy alumni representing classes ranging from 1943-2003 attended this year’s alumni banquet on Aug. 3. Pictured, from left, are Gary Grant, Class of 1973; Jane Washburn Grant, Class of 1943; Bruce Grant, Class of 1963; and Margret Grant Campbell, Class of 1993.

    After introductory remarks from Head of School Arnold Shorey and master of ceremonies Bob White, Tom Coy presented Shorey with a $5,540 check from the Class of 1961. They have now joined the Classes of 1952 and 1962 to become the third class to achieve an endowment of over $5,000 within the last year. There are 13 such class funds at the academy, eight of which have now attained their goal of $5,000
    The income from these funds will continue to help Foxcroft Academy equip students and faculty with cutting-edge tools, expand its academic programs, improve its facilities and offer scholarship opportunities to its students.
    Shorey then announced that this year’s recipient of the Dr. Mary Chandler-Lowell Award, which is given annually to an alumnus who has distinguished himself or herself professionally, is Dr. Joseph Zilinsky. 

    DISTINGUISHED AWARD — Foxcroft Academy Head of School Arnold Shorey (left) presents the Dr. Mary Chandler-Lowell Award to Dr. Joseph Zilinsky.

    Dr. Zilinsky grew up in Dover-Foxcroft, attending North Street Elementary School and Dover Grammar School during the late 1940s and early 1950s prior to attending Foxcroft Academy, which he graduated from in 1960. He then moved on to Bowdoin College, where he earned an AB in Biology in 1964. After spending a summer working for the Upjohn Company, a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm, Dr. Zilinsky started graduate school at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he received an MA in Microbiology in 1967 and a Ph.D in Microbial Physiology in 1970.
    In the fall of 1970, Dr. Zilinsky started as an assistant professor of Biology and Microbiology at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, a four-year comprehensive university that offers a master’s program in Biology/Microbiology.This allowed Dr. Zilinsky to teach undergraduate classes, mentor master’s candidates over the years, and focus on his own research interests, which have centered on photosynthesis, and in particular the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopsuedomonas capsulatus–an organism that provides its energy by photosynthesis in the light and absence of oxygen and by respiration when oxygen is available.
    Dr. Zilinsky also became interested in the normal bacterial flora of the surfaces of pine needles and their possible role in recycling nutrients when the needles are shed by the tree after three or four years.

    OUTSTANDING SERVICE — Danny White (left) presents the Tillson D. Thomas Award to Walter Beaulieu.

    In later years at UW-Oshkosh, Dr. Zilinsky served on the faculty senate and was president for one year. He was co-chair of his department, serving about 20 full-time faculty members and 250 majoring students, for his final three years at the university. He retired as an associate professor in June 2000 after 30 years of service, and he and his wife, Callie, moved to the farm in Otisfield where she grew up. He now has more time to focus on his hobbies, which include horses (he currently has a semi-retired pair of Belgian Geldings) and studying foreign languages.
    Danny White, Foxcroft Academy’s CFO, head football coach and recent Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, then presented the Tillson D. Thomas Award, which recognizes past faculty and staff members who served the students of Foxcroft Academy with the highest degree of professionalism, to Walter Beaulieu.
    Beaulieu graduated from the University of Maine–Orono in 1962 and started his teaching and coaching career at Foxcroft Academy the following fall. He taught physical education at the Academy and coached football, wrestling and track until June of 1968, capturing state football titles in 1963 and 1967 and posting the best winning percentage in FA history with a career mark of 39-9.
    Beaulieu moved to New Hampshire in 1968 to work at Portsmouth High School, where he coached football, track, and baseball for the next 30 years. He also served as the head football coach at St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover, N.H. for three years in the mid-1970s. He retired from teaching and coaching at Portsmouth High School in 1999, but the fall of that same year found him assisting in football at Exeter High School and also coaching track and field, posts he still holds to this day.
    Beaulieu married his wife, Carolyn, in 1965, and they had two sons during their time in Dover-Foxcroft and a daughter after moving to Portsmouth. Their children are all involved in some form of education: Brian is the Director of Operations for the Boys and Girls Clubs in Austin, Texas; Aaron is a superintendent in Pitt County, N.C., and will be moving this fall to Durham, N.C, to become the school system’s chief financial officer; and Bridgette is an elementary school teacher in London.
    Other highlights of the banquet included an impressive turnout for the members of the Class of 1963, who were celebrating their 50th reunion and were thrilled to win the Best Alumni Float award in the Homecoming Parade earlier in the day; Mr. Shorey’s presentation of flowers to Judy Collins Leighton, Class of 1967, who has decorated the gymnasium for the Alumni Banquet each of the past 25 years, and to FA Alumni Officer Cathy Hall, who planned and organized her 21st banquet.