Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Tredinnicks - a Wakefield legacy

Description

"Frank A. and Mary Louise Tredinnick may well be remembered as two of Wakefield's most active and community-minded citizens. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tredinnick were actively involved in nearly every aspect of the town and its organizations for over 50 years. Frank A. Tredinnick, the son of John and Barbara (Smith) Tredinnick, was a native and lifelong resident of Wakefield. Mr. Tredinnick served as Wakefield's Building Inspector for 15 years until his retirement in 1965. He was elected to the Board of Assessors in 1952 and served as Chairman and Secretary for several years. He was Executive Secretary of the Wakefield Industrial Development Commission and was active in many community organizations including the Hurd School PTA. His active involvement in Wakefield led him to become active in several state and regional committees including membership in the New England Building Officials' Conference, Massachusetts Building Commissioners and Inspectors Association and the Massachusetts Assessors Association. He was President of the Middlesex County Assessors' Association as well as a member of the Executive Board. Mr. Tredinnick served as an assessor and compliance inspector for the Veterans' Administration. A veteran of World War I, Mr. Tredinnick served with the Combat Engineers and received a Purple Heart. He passed away in 1967 at the age of 71. Mary Louise Tredinnick was born in Lynn in 1892, the daughter of William and Mary Emma Hutchinson. Her family moved to Wakefield in 1914. She served as a member of the Wakefield School Committee for 18 years, from 1936 to 1954 and was the first woman to serve as Chairman. As a member of the committee, she was primarily responsible for the Wakefield High School (now the Jr. High School) building as well as the Dolbeare and Walton School. She was a member and President of several organziations including the Kosmos Club, the Wakefield Garden Club, Arts and Crafts Society, Visiting Nurse Association, the Monday Club, the Wakefield Mothers' Club, the Hurd School PTA, the Mary Franham Bliss Society and the First Parish Federation of Women's Clubs (the predecessor of the Women's Guild). Mrs. Tredinnick was the chairman of the Women's Division of the Melrose-Wakefield Hospital Development Program in 1961 and spearheaded the house-to-house campaign for pledges and contributions for a major building project. She was an active member of the Cancer Control Committee, the Speakers' Bureau of the United War Effort during World War II, the New England Genealogical Society and was an officer and member of the Col. James Hartshorne House Association. Mrs. Tredinnick was a member of the Court of Honor for the Massachusetts Mother of the Year in 1946 and was honored as the West Side Social Club's Citizen of the Year in 1958. A gifted writer and an avid student of music, poetry and dramatics, Mrs. Tredinnick was the author of the Tercentenary Hymn of the First Parish in 1944. She was a weekly contributor of poems to the Boston Herald and authored a book of poems as well as an essay 'The Only Book' to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the printing of the Bible. The essay was reprinted widely throughout the country and in college textbooks. Mrs. Tredinnick passed away in April 1964." -- Text from calendar by Jayne M. D'Onofrio.

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 1990

Photo courtesy of the Wakefield Daily Item.

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Creator

Tredinnick, Frank A.

Tredinnick, Mary Louise, 1892-1964

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Tredinnick, Mary Louise

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

2 pictures : b&w

Extent

10 x 8 cm.