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“You’d be good at it and we’ll make it work.” That is how Tom Hassan responded when, in 2002, his wife, Maggie, called him to say that the New Hampshire Democratic Party had approached her to run for an open state Senate
(Above) Tom, Meg ’11, Ben and Maggie Hassan. ( Below) Election night 2014 and New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan’s second-term win.
seat. Making it work has long been a hallmark of the Hassan family. In fact, making it work for their son Ben is how Maggie, now serving her second term as governor of New Hampshire, got her start in politics. Back when Ben, now in his mid-20s, was in elementary school, Maggie was determined to see that his school accommodated his needs. Due to cerebral palsy, Ben uses a wheelchair and needs assistance for most tasks. Although he is unable to talk, his mind is keenly alive and very active. He also exhibits a lively sense of humor. Maggie, a lawyer, became engaged in disability-rights activism to make
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BY JULIE QUINN sure that her son was given every opportunity to grow intellectually. Her involvement, especially in the public school sector, resulted in an appointment to a state education-advisory commission in 1999. While Maggie didn’t win that first 2002 election, she went on to become a state senator in 2004. In 2012 she was elected to her first two-year term as governor. She was re-elected in 2014. Politics, activism and education have always been Hassan family affairs. Meg Hassan ’11, now a senior at Brown University, has worked as an enthusiastic volunteer on all of her mother’s campaigns. She has also been an intern at Exeter’s Summer School. While a student at Exeter, Meg was active in Best Buddies, a student club for which her father has served as an adviser and driver and of which Ben was a member. It matches volunteer Academy students with youngsters who have intellectual and developmental disabilities. Meg’s field of interest at Brown has been education and public policy, and after graduating this spring she will head to the southern U.S. as part of the Teach for America program. This extraordinarily busy and active family makes it work with grace and with dedication to their responsibilities and to one another. As first gentleman of New Hampshire, Tom will often leave just after an Academy event has ended and go straight to a formal or informal state occasion. As part of his Help Out New Hampshire Tour, he has visited all 10 counties in the state, highlighting different volunteer efforts. Tom also enjoys reading to grade school students in a group circle, which, he says, is a change from teaching mathematics around a Harkness table. Similarly, Maggie might come home from hours in the New Hampshire emergency center overseeing blizzard preparedness, response and cleanup to play hostess at a dinner at Saltonstall House, attend an Academy sporting event or speak to a student group about the national political landscape. A typical day starts at 5 a.m. for Tom and Ben, the early risers. Maggie and Meg, if she is home, join them later. The family group is rounded out when Joyce Averill arrives. Twenty-six years ago, Joyce was the first person to answer an ad seeking a caregiver for Ben. She has been with the family ever since. Always close at hand is Honey Mae, a dog with big ears and a huge heart who the Hassans adopted from the New Hampshire SPCA several years ago. Whether getting ready to start a new day or to begin a new chapter in their lives, the Hassans together, as a team, will talk through the issues, listen to one another and, as usual, make it work.
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