The Gleeson Family Scholarship: Honoring a Family’s Commitment to Community Service
“My great grandparents lived during sequential difficult times- the Flu Pandemic, WW1, The Great Depression and WW2, but all remained very patriotic and committed to service”- Dr. Louise Baxter
Dr. Louise Baxter remembers her great grandparents, The Gleesons, as strong community leaders who valued volunteerism and community.
The Gleesons immigrated from Ireland in the late 1800’s and settled out the Wynoochee. They raised four children, Michael “Andy”, Margaret, Rose and Mary Gleeson all of whom resided in Montesano as nonagenarians and centenarians.
Andy was a WW1 Army “Doughboy”, Rose, a nurse, Margaret, a Red Cross volunteer who made bandages during the war and served as a US Army Airforce observer, staffing lookout towers along the coast as first line against enemy aircraft and Mary, who during WW2 was a local “Rosie the Rivater” volunteer at the Boeing plant in Aberdeen that made gun turrets for the B-17.
Dr. Baxter, a former Montesano graduate herself, created this scholarship opportunity with the hope of creating an opportunity for a Montesano graduate who embodies the exact values her family upheld in our community for so long.