LYNN — Ron Comeau, the man who mentored Lynn English drama students for decades, will have his “last show” on Saturday.
After a four-year battle with bladder cancer, the Lynn native, 66, died on Nov. 3, surrounded by family and close friends. A celebration of life, planned by Comeau in his final months, will be held in his honor at Lynn English High School at 11 a.m.
“Ron planned it all,” said his sister, Joan Comeau, 69. “He gave everyone orders. He has been talking about it for a while, saying ‘I’m not going to die yet but I just want to tell you…’ and he would list out things. At first I wasn’t paying attention, then I realized I needed to take notes.”
Joan said while her younger brother has been sick for a while, his death was a shock to everyone, given he was always optimistic about getting better. He had high hopes of becoming stronger by November, so he could try a new round of chemotherapy, she said, but his pain started to increase significantly about a month and a half ago.
“Because he became so weak and uncomfortable, they couldn’t do any more chemotherapy,” she said. “There are a lot of people who are really, really sad and have reached out to us. My family is hurting, and we know how much other people are hurting as well.”
Since his death, Joan said she and her brother Jim Comeau, 62, have received an enormous amount of supportive messages from their brother’s former students, colleagues, and friends. They were all really touching, she said.
“We knew that Ron had an impact way beyond what we knew, but it was so heartwarming to find out just how far and wide he had made that impact,” she said. “We heard from people in Washington, Iowa, Virginia, and all sorts of places.”
Ron Comeau was the tech director for the Lynn English Drama Club for more than two decades, working alongside Larry Lowe, the legendary Lynn English drama teacher. The friendship between the two men started long before their work at the high school, said Lowe. It started 52 years ago at a Halloween party hosted by Joan.
“There was nothing we wouldn’t do for each other,” said Lowe. “When he was ill with cancer, our relationship changed because at that point I was retired, so we talked every day. We were just a great support system for each other throughout our time, especially through this last stage of his life. He went through quite a bit this last year, but he was always optimistic he was going to beat it and go back to Disney, his favorite place in the world, for one more trip.”
Their paths crossed multiple times over the years before they both began working at Lynn English, Lowe said. Ron had a special way with students, he added, even the preschoolers he taught for the last 30 years while working at Bright Horizon child care centers.
“He was one of the most gentle people I know, especially when working with the preschoolers,” Lowe said. “He was kind of like our own Mr. Rogers, because he’d do songs with them, he’d do puppets with them and all the little kids knew him as Mr. Ron. He was really important in their lives in terms of exposing them to music, art, and storytelling.
“Ron had a real love for the students. They trusted him and they could go to him and talk to him about anything. He was the loving uncle that you could always go and talk to.”
Aside from working at the high school and the child care centers, Ron owned his own private business for the last 50 years. The Jubilee Puppet Theatre, which Joan called an entertainment wonderland, was how he taught young children how to be kind and how to deal with negative aspects of life, using sing-a-longs and puppets, which he sewed himself.
Aside from theater music and entertaining his students, Ron had a lot of love for folk music, photography, good food, and anything Disney, said Lowe. He was also a trained Methodist minister who “lived his faith every day,” according to his sister.
At Saturday’s celebration of life, there will be a showcase of some of Ron’s artistic work over the years, including some of his photography. Per his request, it is a family-friendly event and all ages are welcome to attend, said Joan.
“Ron was a loving, kind, and compassionate man,” said Joan. “His legacy was his love for music and his joy, and that is something I can see passed on for generations. He was such a mentor and coach to so many people. He demonstrated all the time how to be a good person and how to behave like a good person.”
