Lawrence Eagle Tribune

July 12, 2006

Bill McEvoy, 'Mr. North Andover,' dies

NORTH ANDOVER - Bill McEvoy once stumbled across two young baseball players too poor to afford balls or gloves.

First, he asked them to try out for his youth baseball league. Then he flipped the boys a new ball from his pocket and quietly walked away.

"He didn't make a big deal about what he did for people. He just did what he thought needed to be done," his daughter Kathleen McEvoy-Schufreider said.

McEvoy, who was often referred to as "Mr. North Andover" or the "Mayor of North Andover," died in his sleep yesterday morning at Lahey Clinic in Burlington. McEvoy-Schufreider said doctors told her her father, 79, suffered internal bleeding after falling ill on Monday.

McEvoy was often found watching baseball with his son Bill Jr. or sneaking his granddaughter Grace into the Main Street Dunkin' Donuts shop.

"He knew I didn't want her eating doughnuts, but he would just sneak her in there and buy things for her," she said. "He just thought it was so funny."

McEvoy, who was born in a house on Second Street, leaves behind a legacy of selfless civic dedication stretching more than 50 years, according to relatives and friends. Among many achievements, he founded the town's festival committee, which coordinates July 4th fireworks, coached the town's first Little League team, organized the town's Christmas parade, founded public ice skating, served as president of the North Andover Housing Authority and wrested control of the former Chadwick playground from the city of Lawrence.

That last episode prompted the selectmen to rename the park, which is just across Sutton Street from the Lawrence Municipal Airport, after McEvoy. The locker room in the new athletic facility at Brooks School, where McEvoy was athletic director for 16 years, also is named in his honor.

He also was a coach at Brooks School, the town's recreation director, a bookkeeper at the former Davis & Furber Mills and was a North Andover firefighter for 37 years. He was so well known and well liked that his approval was said to cement victory for those running for local office.

"He was a giant," said resident and former School Committee member Mark DiSalvo. "He was someone who absolutely recognized what the word community means. He was a guy who knew it and lived it."

McEvoy-Schufreider said she believes her father learned compassion and dedication from his own grandfather P.P. Daw, a selectman who ran the town's poor farm during the Depression. As a young man, McEvoy watched as his grandfather supplied food to needy residents. His daughter said she believed that experience helped form McEvoy's willingness to give to others.

"I think that was just part of what he knew growing up," she said. "It was just something he did without thinking about it. I don't think anyone from my generation can match up with that."

A talkative and engaging man, McEvoy was most closely associated with his passion for sports. He coached baseball, softball and basketball and was the longtime host of the local cable access show, "Sports n' Things" with former North Andover High School Athletic Director Jack Stephenson.

He also showed up at nearly every gathering of importance from Town Hall to the ball fields. His absence at Monday night's Special Town Meeting - at which he was supposed to count votes - disturbed him even as he lay in the emergency room at the hospital.

"He was active right until the end because that's just what you do," McEvoy-Schufreider said. "North Andover was just very important to him."

McEvoy is survived by his wife, Jeannine, daughters Pamela McEvoy and Lisa McEvoy, and son Bill McEvoy Jr.