Marie Cassidy reflects on her career and being named 2026 Citizen of the Year

Which of the following is true: Marie Cassidy once interviewed for a big job in a bowling alley; Marie Cassidy once made a roomful of bankers cry; or Marie Cassidy once drove a school bus during her first teaching job?

Would it surprise you to know that all three are true?

Cassidy is sitting in her office at the Medford Family Network, located behind the purple door at Medford High School. It’s a rainy afternoon and she’s finishing up the day before taking her grandson out to dinner on the occasion of his graduation.

She is talking about her recent Citizen of the Year award, which has been given by the Medford Chamber of Commerce annually since 1971 to someone who personifies the volunteer spirit of the community.

A luncheon was held in her honor on May 4 at Bistro 489, the Culinary Arts restaurant, located behind the high school. It was, she says, the perfect setting.

“It felt really good to me,” Cassidy says. “I know those students. I go there every day for tea and my muffin. I also love the chefs, they teach the kids these wonderful skills that go beyond the cooking.”

And Cassidy enjoyed having her family there — husband of 35 years Sumner Jones, brother Jerry Cassidy and sister Carolyn Schleer — as well as those she’s worked with over the years, from school staffers to business owners to city and state officials.

Although she’d received a public service award from the chamber about 10 or 12 years ago, Cassidy says the COTY honor was such a surprise. She had no idea she’d been nominated.

“I was floored!” Cassidy says. “Paul Donato called me while I was in church. I was the sponsor for my granddaughter’s confirmation so I couldn’t take the call.”

Donato didn’t leave a message. Cassidy says at first she thought it had to do with the Medford Family Network.

As soon as the church service ended, Cassidy called Donato.

“He said, ‘I have something special to tell you,’” Cassidy recalls. “Then he said that I’d won the Citizen of the Year award. I thought he wanted me to do something for the MFN and, of course, my immediate thought was how can I help and what do you want me to do.”

But then she realized what Donato was telling her.

“He said, ‘No, you won the award,’” Cassidy says, with a laugh. “I started to cry. Then he said that Domenic [Camarra] would be calling me and he said, ‘I wanted to be the one to tell you.’”

The phone calls and emails started shortly afterwards, from everyone congratulating her and wishing her well.

“And Laura O’Neil was just wonderful to me,” she says of the Chamber's executive director.

So, where’s the clipper ship, the award given to the COTY each year?

“On my fireplace mantel,” Cassidy says. “My husband just got an award from his bank and it’s a portrait of a ship so they’re near each other.”

Medford born and bred

Did you know Marie Cassidy was born and raised in the city of Medford?

She’s actually the oldest of three kids, living on Marston Street when she was born. At age 3, the family moved to Roosevelt Road.

“I saw [Interstate] 93 being built and the rotary (Roosevelt Circle),” she says. “I spent my childhood watching them move houses and building the highway. I am ingrained in Medford!”

Cassidy attended St. Francis School from kindergarten through eighth grade before heading to Matignon High School in Cambridge. Before long, it was off to Salem State College, where she majored in and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, grades K-8. A master’s degree from Wheelock College in parental education and family support followed.

It might seems as though she always wanted to be a teacher.

“Let me tell you where it started,” Cassidy explains. “When I was 16, I got a job as a parks instructor in Medford. I was at the Waite School, where there was a brand new playground. I hit it the first day and 23 kids came. Pretty soon, I had all the kids doing activities like dodge ball, and arts and crafts, and talent shows. That’s how I put myself through college.”

And, she says, that’s when she fell in love with working with kids and their families.

A call to education

At Salem State College, Cassidy took advantage of every opportunity to work with children. During one semester, she headed off to England to do an education practicum at a school in Bradford, a town 150 miles north of London.

“At that time, education there was very progressive,” Cassidy recalls. “They were learning less didactic education and learning to be very interactive with the kids.”

It was 1973 and as a college student with no money, Cassidy says, she lived on eggs and candy. But she loved every second of it.

When she came back to the U.S., Cassidy went back to being a parks instructor. But because she was so good at her job, she was soon promoted to dramatic arts supervisor.

“For the next two years, I went to every park in Medford and put on talent shows,” she says. “At the end of the summer, we would put on a big talent show at the Condon Shell.”

After graduating from college, Cassidy says, it was “very hard to find a job.” But eventually, she took a position in a very small town in northern New Hampshire called Stratford Hollow.

“I became the Head Start director and the head teacher at 22,” she says, laughing and shaking her head. “Can you believe that? There was a little red schoolhouse in the Hollow, which was idyllic, absolutely idyllic!”

Those were the days that she was a jack-of-all-trades, driving the school bus when necessary and even becoming a 4-H leader in order to give the kids in the area something to do after school.

“That’s when I became aware there was a lot of child abuse going on,” she says. “I started to train to learn more about child abuse and neglect and how to prevent it. I would then go around the state and give lectures at age 23!”

She also took on more responsibilities, becoming the GED instructor for high school drop-outs.

“I wanted these adults to get their GEDs and diplomas so they could get a good job,” she says. “I did that for four years and I think it set the tone for the rest of my life. I loved working with all the families, I loved giving them leadership and helping them find their voices. It was a very formative time for me because I was all alone, with no friends or family, and no car.”

At 26, Cassidy came back to Medford to teach. It was 1976, her father had died and she came home to be with her mother and teach sixth grade at the Hobbs Junior High School.

Two years later, she had lost her job due to cutbacks.

“I was devastated!” she says. “I needed a job and I couldn’t find another teaching job.”

And so in 1978, Cassidy went to work for the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company on State Street.

Volunteering with kids

But just because she was working at a bank didn’t mean Cassidy had given up on working with kids. She volunteered with the Council for Children, an organization overseen by the Office for Children, a state agency that oversaw the area councils which provided childcare settings.

For four years, Cassidy volunteered. She soon became president of her local council and then president of the regional council, where she created programs for kids with disabilities and developed literacy programs.

She then moved to the state level, finally being recognized for her volunteerism by the Massachusetts Bankers Association as Volunteer of the Year in 1978.

The award win gave her the opportunity to go to Florida, where she spoke at a national conference of 300 bankers alongside keynote speaker John Silber. She was 27 at the time.

“I made a room full of bankers cry,” Cassidy says. “I talked to them about the child abuse I had witnessed and the need to change that. These were bankers and I told them they needed to give a part of their lives to do other things.”

When she got back to Massachusetts, a job opened up at the Office for Children in Wakefield.

“I was in heaven!” Cassidy shouts. “I could finally create all these programs and organizations. That’s actually how I met Paul Donato. I was an advocate at the legislative level and I was up at the State House at least once a week doing presentations before them. I loved the Office for Children.”

She was there 10 years, until the office lost its funding, and then it was a matter of doing more with less, Cassidy says, until the Wakefield location closed and she was moved to Malden in 1988.

“OK, I really loved it,” she admits of the move. “But then they lost all their funding. I was looking around and I went to the director of the local [Department of Social Services] office in Wakefield, Norman Woodcock. He said I had a background in social work so I got a job as a social worker.”

And in her nearly five years, Cassidy became close to her supervisor.

“All the people I have ever known, I keep in touch with,” she says. “I still have friends from way back. That’s a through-line in my life.”

Back to Medford

One of those friends directed her to Medford, where the school system was looking for ideas for an early childhood program. Cassidy sent Medford Public Schools her ideas.

“Then nothing,” she says, “until three months later when I got a phone call from Roy Belson, who was early childhood director. He wondered why I wasn’t applying for the job, because they had gotten the grant.”

What grant? Turns out the state was setting up family centers across the state, funding them to provide early childhood education for communities.

Medford had applied for the grant, received it, and became the first family center in the state. It was to be called the Medford Family Network.

“Roy told me to come in and apply for the job,” Cassidy says. “I put on my pinstripe suit and went in to interview.”

She got the job. That was in 1993.

“And I’ve been here for 33 years,” Cassidy says. “I have loved every second of it, the good, the bad and the ugly. All those years, I was finally able to pull in everything I had learned.”

In the meantime, Cassidy met and married Sumner Jones, after being set up with him by a friend. He worked in a bank…and had a secret.

“My friend said, ‘He’s got four kids’ and I said, ‘Tell me more!’” Cassidy says, adding she was very excited to meet the kids.

Five years of dating later, Cassidy and Jones married in 1991. They now have seven grandchildren, ages 13 to 23. They keep her busy.

The retirement decision

Several years ago, Cassidy’s husband retired. It got her thinking about making some changes of her own.

But it wasn’t until several years ago, when a new staffer was hired to help with the after-school program and demonstrated all the skills an executive director would need to lead the MFN, that the idea of retiring became a possibility. That, of course, was Assistant MFN Director Irina Shumway.

“It was the perfect storm,” Cassidy explains. “Irina was a parent in the Network, she was on the Friends [of the Medford Family Network] and she was on the board of directors. And no one else wanted it.”

Cassidy is scheduled to retire June 30, but she says she plans to run the summer concerts for the MFN and help out in any other way she can.

“I almost don’t want to retire,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t know how to sit down. But, I will be around.”

So what’s next?

“The world is next,” Cassidy laughs. “I have so many interests and I’ll be around here, too!”

And if you’re wondering if she really got a job by interviewing at a bowling alley, Cassidy says that’s 100% true. The woman she interviewed with was in a league, and Cassidy took it upon herself to head over to Ryan Family Amusements in Malden to bowl right alongside her.

“I had my blue bowling ball and bag in the trunk of my car!” she says. “There I was in my little pinstripe suit, with my bowling shoes, and she interviewed me right there. And yes, I did get the job!”