OXFORD – A man credited for creating a unified school district in the Oxford Hills that grew to include eight neighboring towns, 12 schools and 3,600 students has died.
Howard I. Libby was 95 when he died earlier this month at his grandson’s home in Farmington.
Libby, who grew up in Burnham and was a longtime educator, was serving as superintendent of Paris in the 1950s when he joined forces with the Norway superintendent to campaign for a unified school district here.
“A district is supposed to offer a better education and save money,” Don Gouin, a retired SAD 17 employee who worked under Libby, said Tuesday. “In the long run, that certainly is true.”
Gouin said Libby helped convinced voters to ratify the Oxford Hills School District, forming it in 1961.
“Usually the formations of districts were quite emotionally charged, because you would have rivals joining with one another,” Libby’s son, Gerald Libby, said Tuesday. “And if your grandfather was a member of the football team of one school it would be difficult for him to conceive of his grandson playing on a football team of another school.”
Gouin recalled that the issue caused some rancor at the time.
“It meant giving up the local control of schools, that was the big issue,” Gouin said. “And change, you know, some people, if there is change, they are afraid of change.”
But the experiment paid off.
“He was very proud of his work with SAD 17,” Gerald Libby said. “He thought the result was an excellent, modern school system.”
Libby served as SAD 17’s first superintendent from 1958 to 1967, when he retired and started what became a 25-year career as a part-time salesman of children’s books.
“I just remember he was very personable, he was just so calm and easy to communicate with,” Mary Lou Burns said Tuesday.
Libby hired Burns out of college to teach fourth grade. She eventually moved on to become personnel director for the district, retiring in 1999. “I remember he came over and asked me if I would drive the bus to junior high to take the kids to hot lunch because he knew I had driven tractors when I was younger. Then he had to come back and say no, because the school board said no. “
Libby was born in Burnham in 1911, the son of Howard Isaac and Mildred Doe Libby. He graduated from Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield in 1928 and from Colby College in 1933, later earning a graduate degree in education from University of Maine. He taught in several Maine schools and was superintendent in Newport, South Berwick and Paris.
Libby was a Scrabble fan, playing almost daily with Meda, his wife of more than 71 years. He also enjoyed his garden, his tree farm, playing pool and keeping a daily diary.
Burns said she remembered Libby as a steady person who kept the district on an even keel, who was also actively interested in the education of children.
Gouin, too, likened Libby to a sea captain. “He ran a good ship. He expected you to do your job and to do it well,” he said.
“He was really great, he cared about kids, about education,” Gouin said.
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