Good for this Place
HCC community mourns death of David Bartley '54
As Holyoke Community College prepares to bid farewell to its fourth president and welcome its fifth next month, the HCC community is mourning the passing of its second president, David M. Bartley '54, a proud alum and fierce advocate for community college education and especially for HCC.
Bartley, 88, a lifelong resident of Holyoke and a former Massachusetts Speaker of the House, died Tuesday, June 13, after several weeks of hospice care. He served as president of the college from July 1975 to January 2004, a time of extraordinary growth and expansion, succeeding George Frost, the founding president of HCC.
"I'm gonna miss him. I'm really going to miss him," said Tom Stewart, HCC director of Athletics, Activities, and Clubs, who worked with Bartley for eight years before the latter retired, and maintained a close relationship with him thereafter. "He was really good for this place. He loved the school. He wanted kids to succeed."
Stewart, who is also director of the campus facility named for the former president, the Bartley Center for Athletics and Recreation, said Bartley's philosophy is epitomized by the quote on the dedication plaque outside the building: "Holyoke Community College is four walls and a future."
"That was his big thing," said Stewart.
Francis Kane '56, a friend of Bartley's since grammar school, called Bartley a great innovator, motivator, and visionary.
"He was a great leader," said Kane, who served as a college trustee during Bartley's presidency. "He never expected you to do anything that he wouldn't do himself."
Bartley lived his entire life in Holyoke in the Irish, working-class neighborhood of Elmwood, not far from what was then called Holyoke Junior College, where he enrolled in 1952 after graduating from Sacred Heart High School.
During a 2021 interview, Bartley credited George Frost, the founding president of HCC, for instilling in him a love of learning and a desire to pursue greater goals.
"He was my mentor, my friend, and the greatest guy I ever met in terms of education," Bartley said.
At HJC, Bartley studied liberal arts and developed some of the political skills that would serve him well later as a state legislator and Speaker of the House. He was elected president of his freshman class and vice president of his sophomore class. He was a member of the yearbook staff, co-director of the annual variety show, and parliamentarian of the Student Council. He also played baseball and captained the HCC men's basketball team.
For graduation, the faculty selected Bartley as the student who most contributed to Holyoke Junior College.
After HJC, Bartley transferred to the University of Massachusetts, where he was a star in the classroom and on the basketball court. After earning his bachelor's degree, he taught for four years at Forest Park Junior High School in Springfield.
Politics, however, ultimately trumped education. He won a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature representing Holyoke in 1963. He assumed the Speaker's post in 1969 at the age of 32 and remains the youngest to have ever served in that position.
As Speaker, Bartley's influence was critical in securing the state funds required to construct a new campus on Homestead Avenue after a 1968 fire destroyed the main campus building on Sergeant Street. To get it done, he worked together with another Holyoke native, Maurice Donahue, then president of the Massachusetts Senate.
"Without him being in the House and Maurice Donahue being in the Senate, we're not sitting here right now," said Stewart. "This place is still a farm. It's not Holyoke Community College."
His legislative highlights included the Bartley-Fox Act, which imposed a one-year prison sentence for illegal gun possession, and Chapter 766 legislation that supported mainstreaming special needs students in public schools. In 1975, a year after the opening of the new campus, Bartley left the Legislature to succeed George Frost as president of HCC.
"He had done all of the hard work; all I had to do was administer," Bartley said. Like Frost, Bartley said, "I wanted to ensure that everyone had an opportunity for an education in Western Massachusetts."
Nevertheless, Bartley did a lot of hard work himself over the course of his 28 years as HCC president and left an indelible legacy.
One of his first initiatives as president was to start an alumni association, and the person he tapped to run it was none other than his mentor and predecessor, George Frost. In the 1980s, at Bartley's behest, HCC created the first philanthropic community college foundation in Massachusetts, the nonprofit HCC Foundation, which was launched with $200 left over from a fundraising organization created after the 1968 fire called the Friends of Holyoke Community College.
"What the hell is a foundation, David?" Kane, then a trustee, remembers saying at the time. "And he starts off with, we're going to spend the first two years raising friends of the college, people that we know are capable of helping us out with money, letting them know what's going on at the college, and getting the message out through the media, and then we got to the point where we had to raise the money."
And they did.
The Foundation awarded its first student scholarship in 1987. By the time Bartley retired in 2004, the Foundation endowment had reached $3 million. Today, the Foundation manages assets of more than $20 million and over the years has awarded more than $10 million in student scholarships while also helping the college build key academic facilities, including the Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development, the Center for Health Education and Simulation, and the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute.
During his tenure, Bartley oversaw the construction of the Campus Center and the athletic facility he had long sought while also laying the groundwork for the Kittredge Center, which opened in 2006.
He was a key backer of biology professor Elaine Marieb '80 as she built her career as a textbook author and became HCC's largest benefactor.
"He loved Elaine Marieb and courted her when she was here," said Stewart. "He courted her after she left and her book took off. He gave her the support that she needed. She was very good to us. A lot of that was because of David Bartley."
He was never shy about using his political influence to benefit the college.
"I have wonderful memories of him," said Idelia Smith, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs and a 41-year employee of HCC. "He was great fun to be with, and he drove far too fast. He loved the big Buicks."
Smith remembers Bartley loading up his Buick Electra 225 with HCC staff and tearing down the Mass Pike to the State House to lobby the legislature for money. "He'd roll underneath the State House and use the parapet where the legislators came in," said Smith. "He stood up out of the car like he owned the place. They still referred to him as Mr. Speaker and he walked through like he was still the Speaker. We were terribly impressed. It was really nice to be with him because he knew who he was."
Bartley, so family oriented in his personal life, brought that sensibility to his work at HCC, supporting faculty and staff through personal difficulties and making exceptions to rules and regulations to help them.
"He was good to us and to me, specifically," said Smith. "He was very fatherly. It was wonderful having someone like that at the helm."
Unlike many college presidents, Bartley was not an "academic stalwart," said Stewart. Though he did later go back to UMass for his master's degree and Ph.D, he was more of "people person."
"Nobody was too big or too small for David," said Stewart. "Everybody was part of David's team. He treated everybody the same, which was unusual for a man in his position."
He was not above bending over to pick up trash or pulling over to assist a groundskeeper with car trouble, Stewart said.
And he ran a tight ship.
"We all got a piece of David once in a while," said Stewart. "The old line was, 'If you can't get it done, I'll find someone who will get it done.' And it got done."
His demands could sometimes cause friction, and he knew it. "He always said to me, 'Tommy, it's very lonely at the top, and it's very windy too," said Stewart.
While Bartley was president, enrollment at the college grew from about 2,000 to more than 6,500. He remains the only community college graduate in Massachusetts history to serve their alma mater as president.
"I have been at this college nearly 30 years," Bartley said in 2003. "Each year has been exciting and rewarding. I have watched dramatic changes occur at this institution over the past three decades. There are challenges ahead, but the college is well positioned to continue its role as one of the leading community colleges in the state."
In retirement, he remained closely connected to the college, playing in the HCC Foundation's annual fundraising golf tournament that he co-founded as president, serving for many years on the HCC Foundation's board of directors, and creating the Dr. David M. '54 and Bette Bartley Scholarship through the Foundation.
In her first days as HCC's fourth president, Christina Royal received a letter from Bartley welcoming her to the community, a gesture she greatly appreciated. A friendship grew out of their conversations over the years about the college, the city, and the region.
"He was present at my inauguration in the fall of 2017, and I distinctly remember looking his way during a moment of applause. He seemed so very proud of this college," said Royal, who will retire in July and be succeeded by George Timmons, who will become HCC's fifth president. "HCC would not be the gem it is today without former President Bartley. How fortunate we are to have been beneficiaries of his leadership and generosity."
Bartley leaves his wife of nearly 60 years, Bette Bartley, sons Myles Bartley, a New York lawyer, and David K. Bartley, a lawyer and Holyoke City Councilor, and daughter Susan Bartley, who works at MassMutual Center.
The funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, June 20 at 9 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church, 1945 Northampton St., Holyoke, MA 01040.
Calling hours will be held at the Barry J. Farrell Funeral Home, 2049 Northampton Street, Holyoke, MA, on Monday, June 19 from 4 to 7:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Dr. David M. '54 and Bette Bartley Scholarship, Holyoke Community College Foundation, Holyoke Community College, 303 Homestead Ave., Holyoke, MA 01040; Blessed Sacrament School; or the charity of one's choice.
STORY by CHRIS YURKO with contributions from DENNIS HOHENBERGER
PHOTOS: (Above) David M. Bartley works the phones in the President's Office at HCC. (Thumbnail) David Bartley and his family outside the HCC facility dedicated in his honor.
