Bob Simoneau, Bobcat Since 1985 Foreign Language Teacher, Business Manager 1986-2009 Bob Simoneau’s long trek from California to New Hampshire in a 10-year-old VW Microbus was just the beginning of a long, exciting, and continuing Brewster career. Bob had spent every summer between 1950 and 1972 at his parents’ summer home in nearby Ossipee. During the early summer of 1985, his cousin, local businessman Cliff Simoneau, introduced Bob to Headmaster David Smith, noting that in addition to teaching French, Latin, and Spanish, Bob also had a background in public municipal financing at the state and local school levels. It wasn’t long after that that Bob received a job offer to teach Latin and Spanish part-time at Brewster. Bob, his wife, Maureen, Andre (13), Paulo (9), Maureen’s son Michael (5), and their daughter Megeen (18 months), along with their Italian greyhound, Wags, piled into their 1975 VW pop-top camper and their 1976 Toyota Corona and began the cross-country trip to New Hampshire. Although the VW camper broke down in Wyoming and they had to rent a truck to tow it (they were sleeping in it at night), the Simoneau family arrived on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee just six days late. With a resume that included assistant superintendent of schools for the Compton Unified School District and deputy director of the Office of Economic Opportunities for then California Governor Jerry Brown, it was not long before Bob was tapped for the assistant business position. financial viability for the Academy.
Within a year, he became the business manager for the Academy.
This included bond refinancing, “When I first arrived, I found the setting of the campus on the edge of
enabling the completion of the
the lake to be charming, but once I became assistant business manager,
Wilson Center, renovating family and student housing, and the expansion
I became very familiar with the amount of deferred maintenance. With student admissions growing in excess of 25 percent per year, the new dorms, now
of the Estabrook Dining Hall and the Spaulding-Emerson Student Center.
Spencer, Mason, Hughes, Vaughan, Lamb, and Harris were quickly constructed.” For the past 12 years, Bob and Maureen have been dorm parents in Holmes Prior to leaving San Pedro, California, Bob and Maureen had purchased an old
House (more commonly referred to as Simoneau House). Since stepping down
church parsonage in Wolfeboro Falls, which they moved into on their arrival. They
from his position as business manager in 2009, Bob has returned to his love of
had planned to eventually run it as a B&B, however, changes in the town’s zoning
teaching languages, and Maureen continues in her role as assistant librarian.
laws did not allow the B&B to become a reality. Instead of hosting tourists, the
Brewster Academy is indeed fortunate to have had the services of this devoted
parsonage became an off-campus dormitory, and in the 12 years they remained
couple, and is fortunate that both continue to work with students.
owners, Bob and Maureen were dorm parents to 48 students.
27 Years by the Numbers: For 17 years David Smith and Bob worked closely together, taking on the financial master plan, investing in a rainy day fund, working with the state legislature
9,000 275 10
classes taught ELS classes taught languages spoken
to permit non-profit schools to use municipal bonding, and working to ensure
www.brewsteracademy.org
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