SAUGUS — A portrait of Douglas Waybright, for whom Waybright Elementary School is named, will be returned to the family now that the school sits abandoned in the wake of the district’s reconfiguration plans.
The decision received unanimous support from all five members of the School Committee during Wednesday’s School Committee meeting.
“He really was quite well-liked, my dad,” said Waybright’s eldest daughter, Wendy Waybright Raeder. “(The school dedication) was such a great honor at the time.”
Waybright, a 1944 graduate of Saugus High School who died in 1965, was known locally for his stellar athletic record, and, according to his daughters, his charming good looks.
A four-sport varsity athlete, Waybright’s outstanding football feats, under the leadership of Coach Dave Lucey, led the Sachems to three consecutive winning seasons during his time at Saugus.
He received a four-year scholarship to the University of Notre Dame in 1944. Following his graduation and short military service, he returned to Saugus to raise a family, where his two older children, Wendy and Douglas, Jr., eventually followed in his athletic footsteps.
“He was one of those ‘hometown boy makes good,’” said Waybright’s younger daughter, Pamela Waybright. “He went to Notre Dame, he started a company in Saugus, and he was involved in youth sports. He was beloved.”
After Waybright’s death at the age of 38, one of Saugus’ new elementary schools was renamed in his honor, and a painted portrait of him dressed in his football uniform was hung in the building’s lobby shortly after.
When she discovered the school was abandoned in 2020, Ellen Blunt, a friend of the Waybright family, reached out to School Committee Vice Chair Ryan Fisher to see if it would be possible to save the portrait from potential destruction and return it to the custody of Waybright’s three children.
“He was very receptive and got the ball rolling immediately,” Raeder said.
During Wednesday’s meeting, member Arthur Grabowski, who said he was on the Saugus High School football team at the time of Waybright’s death, requested the painting be returned to the town in the future should Saugus officials find another way to honor Waybright’s legacy.
“I hate to see the history of our schools just go away with the closing of the buildings,” Grabowski said. “I would hope that at some point in time we could resurrect the history of all these buildings and people and find a place, whether it be at the middle school, high school, or wherever, to honor all these people in an appropriate manner.”
Raeder agreed, adding that she also hopes to one day see the portrait returned to the town in honor of her father.
“I don’t want it destroyed, and if it’s not going anywhere else in Saugus where it can be seen, I’d like to take it and put it in my house or my brother’s or my sister’s,” she said.
“I would love to see it in another school someday,” she said.
Although logistics still need to be determined, Raeder said the portrait will likely stay with her at her home in Vermont.
Fisher said in a later statement, “We’re very pleased to return this portrait to the Waybright family and are also grateful for their generous offer to donate it back to us in the future if we can use it to further honor Douglas Waybright.”
