Richard "Dick" Leone outside his home on North Road. He grew up in the house up the road.
At this year’s deliberative session in Sunapee, Selectman Fred Gallup recognized fellow board member Chairman Richard “Dick” Leone for his “dedication to the town.” Leone did not file for re-election and, thus, his term ends this week.
Leone served as a Sunapee selectman at three different times for a total of 10 years, most recently from 2005 to the present. He also served the town as a state legislator and school teacher, coach and principal.
North Road is home for Leone. It is there where he or his relatives before him have lived since the early 1900′s.
After graduating from Sunapee High in 1950, Leone entered the US Marines and served as a “Mud Marine” in the Korean War. He then got his degree from Keene State College and went on to Littleton High School to teach industrial arts and math.
In 1966, Leone decided to return to Sunapee to teach. One year turned into 28 years at the school and a career in education as a: Teacher, guidance counselor, athletic coach and director and then principal for 12 years.
Early on, he earned a Master’s Degree in School Administration and Supervision from Plymouth State. Later he became certified in School Counseling and Guidance through the University of New Hampshire.
As you can image, Leone has seen many changes along the way.
At the school, he was part of major curriculum upgrades in the ’70s that allowed for more teaching and learning through flexible scheduling. It let Sunapee “better complete with larger schools” at a time when many schools were consolidating, he explained.
Leone helped take woman’s sports statewide when Title IX federal law prohibited sex discrimination in educational programming. “We were then able to get our woman’s volleyball and soft ball recognized,” Leone added. That was also in the ’70s.
During his first term as a Sunapee selectman, Leone recalls working with fellow selectmen George Wiggins and Ernest Cutting and selectmen secretary Jo Hill in planning and building the town’s first sewer system. Before that, much of the in-town system flowed directly into the Sugar River.
Serving in the NH legislature from 1996 to 2004 is another aspect of Leone’s public service. He worked on Municipal and County Government, Veterans and Education committees.
Through the years, Leone has worked on many committees and boards. Public service is well worth it, says Leone. He encourages others, especially the town’s younger residents to get involved if time and commitments allow.
While Leone wraps up his work on the board of selectmen this week, he has an eye on the coming season, the planting season and the baseball season. He wants to plant more apple trees and bring back the old orchard down the road from his home and he wants to go to Red Sox spring training. If he does not get to spring training this year, hopefully next, he said.
Filed under: History, Stories, Sunapee Schools, Sunapee, NH 03782 Tagged: | Education, Sunapee Selectmen
