Anne M. Akus
February 27, 1919 ~ November 4, 2018
Anne M. (Corcoran) Akus, 99, died Sunday morning, November 4, 2018 at Brooksby Village, where she had resided for the last fifteen years. She was the wife of the late Carl B. Akus.
Born in Boston on Feb. 27, 1919, she was the daughter of the late William and Mary (Sheahan) Corcoran. She was raised and educated in Boston and earned her bachelor’s degree from Boston Teachers College. She later earned her master’s degree from Boston University.
Mrs. Akus taught elementary school for several years in Beverly and then in Marblehead, where she was a beloved teacher at the Glover School for more than twenty years.
A longtime Beverly resident and communicant of Saint John the Evangelist Church, she was a woman of strong religious faith.
During her time at Brooksby Village, she enjoyed being an active participant in many activities and for several years served on the resident council.
She leaves a daughter and son-in-law, Anne and Albert DePiero of Danvers, two grandsons, Stephen DePiero and his wife Cecilia of Greenville, SC and Matthew DePiero and his wife Denise of Medfield, a grandson-in-law, Brian Ward of Medfield, and nine great-grandchildren, Colin and Madison Ward, Julia, William, Connor, Nathan, Carter, Claire, and Jill DePiero. She was predeceased by her beloved granddaughter, Lauren Anne Ward.
Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 12:30PM in Saint John the Evangelist Church, New Balch St., Beverly. Burial will follow in Saint Mary Cemetery, Beverly. Relatives and friends are invited. Visitation will be held Wednesday morning from 10:30AM-12PM in C.R. Lyons & Sons Funeral Directors, 28 Elm St., Danvers. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Brooksby Village Resident Care Fund, 400 Brooksby Village Dr., Peabody, MA 01960 or Care Dimensions, 75 Sylvan St., Danvers, MA 01923.
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I offered this tribute to our beloved Mrs. Akus for a celebration by her students at Brooksby Village in 2013. It brings tears to my eyes today as I read it again. How fortunate her family has been to have had her in their lives all their lives and my heart reaches out to you. How fortunate was I to have had her in my life for one year, a year that made such a difference to me. I share this tribute again at this tender time.
For Mrs. Akus on her special day
I Remember
I remember the neat little desks all in a row on the first day of first grade and feeling so proud that I was really in school now, not like Kindergarten when it was only a half day and we sat on the floor in a circle and took naps on our blankets.
I remember seeing the kind face of my teacher in the front of the room and feeling happy. Somehow, as young as I was, I already knew that a good teacher meant a good school year and a good school year meant a good life.
I remember opening a new book and getting excited about the words and the pictures and Dick and Jane and Spot who would become my new friends that year.
I remember discovering the joy of writing poetry and being inspired to write a poem book of my own complete with illustrations by a classmate — already appreciating that we all had our gifts and that mine were better expressed with a pencil rather than a crayon.
I remember feeling mortified as I got sick in the wastebasket in front of the room and somehow feeling proud that I had at least made it to the basket, and knowing even if the kids laughed, that my teacher would be nice to me and take care of everything.
And I remember seeing my teacher’s face on the day that we lost our president to a bullet from the sky. It was through the expression on her face that I was able to absorb what happened — and even now when I think of that tragic event, I associate it with her beautiful compassionate face, her eyes welling up in tears.
Many years have passed from all that I remember. But I have never forgotten that teacher who first lit the spark and softly blew on that tiny flame in my first year of school. She stood quietly at the gateway of my education, gently opening the door to learning and reading and new ideas that could be put into writing. My entry into that world, she set the tone of how I would feel about school in the many years of school that followed. And because it was her, because of all that she said and all that she did in that first classroom, I became a lover of learning. I have heard it said: “To Teach is to Touch a Life Forever.” Whoever wrote that, must have known my teacher, Mrs. Akus.
With love and gratitude,
Cynthia Frisch