Award founder a spunky woman

Friday, January 20, 2012

Courtesy photo by Madonna, LLC Josephine “Jo” Fearon, recently deceased at age 99, joined the Bedford Women’s Club in 1938, served as its president in 1944-45 and in the 1940s founded the club’s scholarship program, one that through the years has helped alleviate the financial burdens of hundreds of Bedford’s college-bound, high-school seniors.

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The good old days continue for local students benefiting from the Bedford Women’s Club’s scholarship program, one founded in the 1940s that is as robust as ever. Applications for 2012 are now available at local high schools and online.

The organization’s roots go back to 1905. The scholarship program hails to the mid-’40s, when it was initiated by Josephine “Jo” Fearon, recently deceased, a club member since 1938.

Fearon, a wife, mother and educator, also was active with the Bedford Historical Society, Alpha Delta Kappa and the Order of the Eastern Star. She served the Bedford Women’s Club (BWC) as its president in 1944-45. In subsequent decades, she missed few meetings.

The BWC scholarship program has helped fund the dreams of hundreds of Bedford’s high school seniors, in addition to the dreams of young residents enrolled in an accredited degree program for a minimum of three college credits.

Applications are sent in January to high schools where Bedford students are enrolled and are available at bedfordwomensclub.org. A number of criteria – academic excellence, financial need, service to community or school, and other factors – along with the completion of the process by the BWC’s deadline of April 1 determine the field of applicants.

Bedford’s Alexandra Evans, who graduated last year from Bedford High School, is one of the most recent recipients of a $2,500 scholarship from the club. She now attends Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Evans, 18, an avid scholar with an excellent high school record, is pursuing studies in environmental science. Her goal is a career in restoration ecology – the study and practice of renewing environmentally damaged or fragile ecosystems and habitats with the goal of regenerating a more natural state of health.

Likely candidates for her ministrations are farmlands fouled by pesticide; forests devastated by invasive species of insects; or waters whose fish, frogs and other aquatic organisms are ravaged by oil spills.

“I am extremely grateful for the funding I’ve received from the Bedford Women’s Club,” Evans said. “It was such a great help to me. The money went mostly to my first year’s tuition of $41,600.”

Evans and a multitude of previous scholarship recipients surely owe a debt of gratitude to Jo Fearon, whether or not they ever met the woman. Fearon’s long-ago accomplishment has gone far toward alleviating the expenses of ongoing education.

The first-ever BWC scholarship money, a sum of $25, was raised in the 1940s by club members selling baked goods at a town fair. Today, most scholarships range from $1,150 to $2,500.

Josephine Theodora Bonateavane Altenau Fearon was 99 when she passed away Dec.12 at the Ridgewood Center in Bedford. In her career, she was a teacher, school principal and guidance counselor. Her pursuit of scholastic goals was shared with youngsters who mostly heeded her counsel about vocations that suited them.

Fearon’s appreciation of learning perhaps was instilled during her childhood in Everett, Mass., a Colonial town incorporated in 1870. Her parents were from the Netherlands. Dutch was the family’s native language. Nevertheless, her mom and dad reinforced at every opportunity their desire for their daughter to speak English.

Fearon quickly grasped the intricacies of grammar and spelling and the attendant nuances of the English language. Eventually, her parents gave her permission to also speak Dutch. A visit to the Netherlands with her father won her many accolades from relatives who told her she spoke Dutch better than her father.

The BWC archives, containing much of the aforementioned biographical details, are retrieved from writings compiled by Stephanie Alke Johnson, club president for 1997-98. Fearon is reported there as going on to enjoy a fulfilling career in education, despite the meager wages of yesteryear.

“I made $850 per year and had the privilege not only of being the principal but also teaching grades 7 and 8,” Fearon said to Johnson, who along with club member Nancy Herper interviewed Fearon in her home.

Fearon’s education took her first to Keene State and then to Boston University. She penned a history of Bedford to use as her master’s thesis. The work still is available at the Bedford Library for use by history buffs and researchers.

Today’s BWC, a nonprofit organization of some 150 members, continues the good works of Fearon, her club predecessors and her women’s club descendents.

The Scholarship Committee for 2011-12 is going strong. It is headed by co-chairwomen Nancy Herper and Bobbe Fairman. Supporting the project are committee members Amanda Cebrowski, Bennie Hanauer, Barbara Lanteigne, Stefanie Johnson, Evelyn Reed, Beverly Jo Snyder, Margaret Goodrich, Marilyn Frederick and Madonna Lovett Repeta.

Repeta, an award-winning professional photographer who served as the club’s president from 2002-04, cherishes her longtime friendship with Jo Fearon. She knew her well for many years and understood the woman’s feisty attitude. She relates a story here that exemplified the woman’s dry sense of humor:

“Jo stumbled and wound up lying on the floor of her garage for hours on a cold, winter day,” Lovett Repeta said. “Luckily, her garage door was open. The driver of a septic service truck saw her, rushed to her side and picked her up. He carried her into the house before calling 911. When I visited Jo in the hospital, she said, ‘All my life I’ve dreamt about being swept up in the arms of a man in uniform. I guess I should have been more specific!’”

The Bedford Women’s Club’s monthly luncheon meetings are held at the Bedford Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall on the fourth Thursday of each month from September to May. Each gathering provides members with an abundance of camaraderie and the opportunity to donate needed items to the group’s charity of the month – the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels, the Animal Rescue League and more. Special guest speakers also are featured.

More information about the scholarship program, membership or other club activities can be found at bedfordwomensclub.org or by calling membership co-chairwomen Chris Buffey at 935-7228 or Terry Chapman at 472-3642.

Loretta Jackson is a freelance writer and current BWC member residing in Merrimack.