Francis D. Dibble

Francis D. Dibble, Sr., 91, formerly of Holyoke and Springfield, passed away peacefully on June 5 at Redstone Nursing Home in East Longmeadow. His children and grandchildren visited with him in his last days. He was born January 17, 1923 in Holyoke, the son of Howard Clark and Alice (Curran) Dibble. He was a graduate of Holyoke High School, Deerfield Academy and Amherst College and did graduate work in history at Amherst, in athletic administration at Springfield College and in speech at Northwestern University. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy and, together with 49 of his Amherst classmates in the Class of 1946 attended the V-12 program at Williams College, where he served as Regimental Commander. He then attended Midshipman School at Northwestern and was commissioned in January 1945 as an Ensign. Shortly thereafter, during a brief leave, he married his Holyoke High School sweetheart, Rita Egan, who worked for the telephone company while studying to be a librarian at the school then-operated by the Springfield Library & Museums Association. He served as a Gunnery and Stores officer on Landing Ship Tank 218 which sailed from Hawaii to the Marshall and Mariana Islands and Okinawa in the Pacific Theatre before returning to Hawaii where it was preparing for the invasion of Japan when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the end of the war. He was honorably discharged as a Second Lieutenant in 1946. He completed his degree at Amherst College in 1947. He was an outstanding student and a leader among his classmates at every school he attended. At Holyoke High School he was a class officer and named the boy who did the most for the school. At Amherst College, he was the first President of the Class of 1946 and long served as the Class Historian. He was also one of the finest athletes of his era, excelling in baseball and especially in basketball. In 1941, he set the Deerfield Academy single season basketball scoring record. The following year, he broke his own scoring record and captained the team to its first undefeated season in the 40 year history of the program. In his freshman year at Amherst, he joined the varsity and in one of his first games did something which may otherwise never have been done in a Little Three contest: he outscored the entire opposing team by scoring thirty points in a 41-29 Amherst victory over Wesleyan,. Another unique opportunity came to him because of his participation in the V-12 program at Williams in that he served at different times as captain of both the Williams and the Amherst basketball teams. Frank devoted his professional life to education and, after serving on the Amherst faculty for two years, including a temporary stint as the Chair of the Public Speaking Department, he began a career in secondary school education at three leading preparatory schools where he taught English, history and public speaking, coached various sports and debate teams and assumed increasing administrative responsibilities and his wife Rita served as a librarian: Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs; Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts where Frank became a departmental chair, coached the debating team to at least one New England Secondary School championship and became Director of its Summer Program; and then Thompson Academy in Boston, Massachusetts, where he became the schools eleventh Headmaster in 1967. The 1970 Thompson Academy yearbook was dedicated to him, noting that in three years there he had expanded the curriculum, added four new sports teams and revitalized the faculty. Unfortunately, during those years Rita had become seriously ill, so they returned to Holyoke where they would be close to family and where they lived until her death in 1973. He taught at South Hadley High School until his retirement in 1989. While teaching at So. Hadley, he served as President of the South Hadley Education Association. He remarried to Julie Miller, and they eventually moved to Springfield, and Frank became active in community activities, including the Sixteen Acres Civic Association, the Sixteen Acres Library and the campaigns of various candidates whom he admired. During retirement, he also taught frequently as a substitute teacher at Minnechaug High School. Julie predeceased him in 2009, and thereafter Frank moved to an apartment at Keystone Commons in Ludlow where he was able to live independently until recently. Frank is survived by his and Ritas three children, Francis D. Dibble, Jr. and his wife Mary (Harris), of Longmeadow; Ann Dibble Ross and her husband Timothy, of Hampden; and David E. Dibble, of Ludlow. He is also survived by Julies daughter, Susan Arce Beaver, and her husband Charles, of Hampden; and by six grandchildren, David Harris Dibble of Northampton; Professor Sarah Dibble Harris and her husband, Wade Simpson of Bennington, VT; Dr. Elizabeth Harris Dibble and her husband, Jon Kuczmarski of Barrington, RI; James Dibble Ross, of Hampden; Jennifer Arce, of Golden, Colorado, and Kimberly Arce, of Windsor Locks, CT. Another grandchild, Caitlin Dibble Ross, predeceased him in 1996. He is also survived by three great-grandchildren, Lillian Dibble Harris, Madelyn Cait Harris and Emily Elizabeth Harris of Bennington, VT. Frank was a kind gentleman and a loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather to all the members of his extended family and attended every possible academic, athletic, musical and other important event until very late in his life. Frank was predeceased by three of his four brothers, Howard, Carroll (Bud), and Robert and his two sisters, Mary Jane Zajac and Alyce Bissel. His only surviving sibling is Daniel Dibble, Sr., former Mayor of Holyoke, now of Pittsfield. The funeral will be held on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. from the Barry J. Farrell Funeral Home, 2049 Northampton Street, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 9:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Cross Church, 23 Sycamore St., both in Holyoke. Burial will follow at the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Agawam at 11 a.m. Calling hours will be held on Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. Memorial gifts may be made to the Baystate Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice for an endowed fund to be established in the names of Francis D. Dibble, Sr. and Caitlin Dibble Ross. Checks may be made payable to Baystate Health Foundation, 280 Chestnut Street, Springfield, MA 01199.