Thursday, January 18, 2007 Older Editions

The Back Page: An Andover lifer: Bill Gallant, the brother who stayed here

By Bill Dalton

Bill Gallant graduated from Andover High School in 1960, a year ahead of me. Last week, I wrote about his older brother Paul, a guy who grew up in Andover, graduated from Punchard, moved out of town, and eventually became the CEO of Eight O'Clock Coffee. Unlike his big brother, Bill Gallant has spent almost his entire life in Andover. Like his brother, he too was a successful businessman, retiring at 58 as the senior vice president and sales manager of Bowne of Boston, a national financial printing company. He worked there for 25 years and still consults for them.

Bill and I played in the very first years of Little League in Andover, but we both have the same enjoyable memories of playing sandlot baseball. "The thing I remember best was playing all those years at the Playstead when we were kids. I would pack a lunch, ride my bike to the Park very early and wait for people to show up and stay all day," he says. "Remember the kids who showed up? Tank Gillespie. Alfie Lafevre, your brother Bucky, Fred and Jake Polgreen, the Damon brothers, my brother, Billy McCullom, David Murphy, etc. All great guys and we all got along. Every so often some older guys would stop by and take an at-bat: Hayden Daley, Fish Dwyer, Roger Barrous, Teddy Boudreau. What a great period in my life and I'm sure yours. I think I may have enjoyed this more than the organized ball."

One of those older guys, Ted Boudreau, would later be our high school baseball coach. Bill was Ted's captain in 1960, and I was co-captain the year later.

Bill went to Stowe School, the new Central Elementary School (now "Doherty"), Punchard Junior High and then the brand spanking new Andover High School on Shawsheen Road (now West Middle School). He says, "I made life-long friends in school: Kent Damon, Jimmy Dowd, Dan Grecoe, Brad Richards, Billy Hajjar, just to name a few. Actually, we all had dinner together last week."

In those days, sports played a huge role in most boys' lives. It started as soon as we could throw a ball and continued right through and beyond high school. Bill says, "I played basketball and football in high school but more baseball than anything else." Bill's senior year should have been an outstanding one for sports at Andover High, but he says, "Most of my friends went away to school in my senior year so a class that looked very promising athletically proved not to be." For Bill, it was especially disappointing; he broke his wrist sliding into second base in the second game of the baseball season.

Bill mentions some of the great teachers he had: "Kellmurray, Paul Hopkins, Coach McKinery, Will Hixon and Dick Collins." Hixon and Collins were in their first years in Andover, and already were making lasting impressions on Andover's youth, both as teachers and coaches.

Bill met his wife at a Friday night Central Catholic dance. Those dances were important social events in the mid and late 1950s. Bill says, "I met Anne Marie at the same Central dance that Jimmy Dowd met his future wife Kathy Sweet. She and Anne Marie were best friends. They were 13 and Jimmy and I were 15. Billy Hajjar ended up meeting Kathy's sister later on and married her."

While courting his future wife and being a student-athlete in the Andover schools, Bill worked in his dad's store, Gallants Sundial Shoes. It was at 421 Essex St. in Lawrence, next door to Kennedy Butter and Egg and MacArtney's. Bill says, "I think the best training I ever got was at my dad's store - for life and business."

Bill has great memories of the shoe store: "It was really the characters that would hang out at the store and their stories that made the place so much fun. My dad and his brother Mel were great to be around and they loved people, especially my friends, and would encourage them to visit the store as well my house. Dad would light up when they'd visit and made people feel good about themselves. Everyone left with a smile on their face."

Bill started working in the store as a stock-boy when he was 10, then went to sales until he finished college. He says, "The store afforded me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people from Lawrence that I would have never met otherwise. It was at a time when Lawrence was so ethnically diverse and Essex Street was vibrant." Those were the days when Andover was part of "Greater Lawrence." Andover, North Andover, Methuen and Salem, N.H. were suburbs of Lawrence. People from those towns had regular bus service to downtown Lawrence and did much of their shopping there.

Bill graduated from Curry College in 1964, then went into the Coast Guard where he was selected to be on the Ceremonial Honor Guard that participated in President Herbert Hoover's funeral. In 1966 he married Anne Marie Cyr, his childhood sweetheart, in Sacred Heart Church in Lawrence (a church built by Anne Marie's grandfather).

Bill's work career started in the South, but Bill says, "I always had a desire to stay in Andover, so I made career decisions based on that. After a few job changes, I ended up working 25 years for Bowne in Boston."

Anne Marie and Bill have three adult children, Billy, Amy and Mandy, and two grandchildren. Bill's wife and daughter Mandy both teach in the Andover schools.

In talking about Andover, Bill says, "As you well know, Andover (home town USA) was and is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. I've been very fortunate to have a great wife, family and friends." He adds, "By the way, I belong to Andover Country Club, where I play golf two or three days a week along with old pal Kent Damon. We're still trying to beat each other."

Bill and I played baseball together or against each other from age 8 and for many years after. He still loves the sport and recently asked by email if I'd be in Fort Myers, where the Red Sox hold their spring training. As it turns out, we'll both be there.

Columnist Bill Dalton's email address is billdalton@billdaltononline.com.