Horace, What a Mann!

The morning of May 7th brought sunshine and a bit of blustery wind, but the cool spring air didn’t stop the town of Franklin from turning out to celebrate its most revered son. “Celebrating Horace Mann” was the culmination of several years’ effort on behalf of the Horace Mann Statue Committee, consisting of Deborah L. Pellegri, Charles F. Oteri, Robert Dellorco, Lisa Piana and Rep. Jeffrey Roy to commission artist Robert Shure (of Skylight Studios, Inc. www.skylightstudiosinc.com ) for a $96,000 statue of Horace Mann, Father of Public Education in America. Funding for the project was provided by the Massachusetts General Court and the Austin B. Fletcher Memorial Fund, approved by the Town of Franklin, and it was erected at Horace Mann Square at 150 Emmons Street, a park donated and constructed by Roger Calarese.
The celebration of dedication was attended by Town Councilors Matt Kelly, Robert Ballee, Judith Pfeffer, Andrew Bissanti, Glenn Jones, Thomas Mercer, Peter Padula and Deborah Pellegri. Students Jordan Oteri and Megan Levesque, both in seventh grade, offered some background on Horace Mann, and students from the Franklin School for the Performing Arts performed an original, “Horace, Now There Was a Man.”
Honored guests to the event included Senator Richard Ross, Rep. Jeff Roy, Dr. F. Javier Cevallos, of Framingham State University, Dr. Paula Rooney, of Dean College, who announced a scholarship to a Franklin resident in Mann’s name, and Dr. Kevin O’Malley, of the Franklin School Committee.
Musician Jamie Barrett ended the ceremony by performing “The City Known as the Town of Franklin,” followed by a luncheon entertained by student string musicians Angela Yuan, Christopher Chieng, Abigail Gipson and Nicolas Gnaman.