Mary Lou McGrath, 73; was school chief in Cambridge

Mary Lou (Murphy) McGrath, who rose through the ranks from primary school teacher to become superintendent of the Cambridge school system during a time of social upheaval and was the first woman ever to fill that post, died Friday of cancer at her West Harwich home on Cape Cod. She was 73.

``Mary Lou was a leader of education in Massachusetts," David Maher, former Cambridge School Committee member and city councilor, said yesterday. ``She was the most compassionate of educators and hard-working. She never forgot her roots. She took great pride in the fact that she would go to the grocery store for milk and bump into the parents of Cambridge students. She was a huge supporter of parental involvement in the schools. She would say they were her eyes and ears in the community."

Mrs. McGrath, who saw herself as, her brother said, ``a little Irish girl from North Cambridge," worked in the Cambridge school system for 41 years, serving as superintendent from 1988 to 1997, when she retired.

Before that, she had taught second grade in the system's Peabody School from 1956 to 1974 and was acting director of primary grade education from 1974 to 1978. From 1978 to 1987, she was director of elementary education. She first served as assistant superintendent in 1987, when she was named superintendent.

As a teacher, Mrs. McGrath was beloved by her students, said Francis X. Foley, a retired Cambridge principal. ``She was sensitive to their needs, and their learning was her highest priority."

Hers was a liberal voice in a city known for its liberalism. ``I used to kid Mary Lou that she was a little left of Mahatma Gandhi," her brother, Charles Murphy of Belmont, said yesterday.

If liberal meant being on the side of the underdog, Mrs. McGrath was indeed that.

``Mary Lou was often the champion of groups that were not represented well," Maher said. ``As the Portuguese community grew in Cambridge, Mary Lou began a language program while she was superintendent. It was geared to a transitional bilingual program, part in Portuguese, part in English. Before that, Portuguese-speaking students were just thrown into the mix. I think this was very empowering for the Portuguese community."

As superintendent, Maher said, she oversaw the rebuilding of several schools. ``At the time she was superintendent," he said, ``our enrollment was nearly 9,000, compared to today's less than 6,000. We were struggling, because we were basically trying to find places to put the kids."

Prior to becoming superintendent, Maher said, Mrs. McGrath ``played a very significant role" in the desegregation of Cambridge schools. Cambridge avoided the court-enforced busing imposed on Boston in the 1970s, Maher said, ``by coming forward with a voluntary desegregation plan, and Mary Lou was the leader of that plan. Cambridge, in a way, got away from neighborhood schools and moved to magnet schools all over the city, tailored to meet individual needs and desires."

During the AIDS crises of the early 1990s, when high school students asked that informational packets of condoms be distributed, Mrs. McGrath acquiesed. ``She saw it as a proactive approach," Maher said. ``At the time, she was chairperson of the Catholic School Advisory Board. I think she resigned."

Another example of Mrs. McGrath's compassion, Maher said, was a teacher who was dying of AIDS. ``He had confided only to me, because he feared his health insurance would end. I brought the story to Mary Lou, and that guy was able to live out his life with medical insurance."

Mrs. McGrath was born in North Cambridge, the eldest of five children of working-class parents, Charles and Mary (Cooper) Murphy. Her father was a laborer in the glass business, and her mother was a telephone operator. As the oldest, she was sort of a surrogate mother to her siblings while their parents worked, her brother said. ``Mary Lou was the first child of our extended family to go to college."

She had a tutorial bent, even as a youngster, the Globe said in a 1996 story. ``She used to play principal, lining up her siblings and friends in rows, making them write on chalkboards, taking charge."

After graduating from St. John's Elementary and High School in North Cambridge in 1951, she enrolled at Salem State College, commuting by train the first year because of restricted funds.

On graduation from Salem State in 1955, she got a job teaching first grade in Burlington for a year. Then, she became a second-grade teacher at the Peabody School in Cambridge, attended by children of Harvard professors and international visitors. ``It was an eye-opener for a girl from North Cambridge," her brother said.

In 1957, she married Joseph Murry McGrath. Mr. McGrath died in 2002.

Though the couple had no children, Mrs. McGrath counted every Cambridge school child as her own, said Ellen Varella, a retired Cambridge school principal.

``Mary Lou would celebrate kids every day," she said. ``She had a special place in her heart for kids with special needs."

Varella recalled taking busloads of children from their schools to field trips to School Department headquarters just to visit with Mrs. McGrath.

As a boss, Varella said, Mrs. McGrath was ``a strong taskmaster. She held us to high standards, but she had a gentle heart." Mrs. McGrath ``was a bridge between the union and School Committee" when it came to negotiating contracts, Varella said.

After retiring from the school system, Mrs. McGrath became visiting professor at Lesley College, working with practice teachers.

After her diagnosis in 2000, her brother said, Mrs. McGrath decided to stop aggressive treatment in favor of ``a better quality of life." Her family moved her to West Harwich this month.

In addition to her brother, Mrs. McGrath leaves another brother, George Murphy of Cambridge, and two sisters, Lorraine Touchette of Dennis and Joyce Altomare of Alton Bay, N.H.

A Mass will be said tomorrow at 10 a.m. in St. John Church in North Cambridge. Burial will be in Cambridge Cemetery.