Dr. Linda L. Galton

Dr. Linda Louise Galton, 75, of Dartmouth, MA passed away suddenly on August 23, 2023. Born in New Brighton, PA on August 20, 1948, she was the daughter of Charles T. Galton and Patricia J. (McDade) Galton. She is survived by two brothers, Charles Galton and Patrick Galton, and a sister, Cynthia (Galton) Hendrickson. She was preceded in death by her parents and by her brother Robert Galton.

Linda is survived by her husband of 32 years, Stephen S. Fitzroy of Dartmouth, MA; her sons: Matthew D. Fitzroy and his wife Alla Stepanova of Boynton Beach, FL, and Samuel D Fitzroy and his wife Denise (Eures) Fitzroy of Westwood, MA; and her three grandsons: Michael Fitzroy, Matthew Fitzroy, and William Fitzroy.

Linda attended Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, PA, graduating in 1966. She studied psychology and literature at West Virginia Wesleyan University in Buckhannon, West Virginia – graduating in 1970. She and her first husband, John Milanovich, found work in Cleveland upon graduation – John with the Boy Scouts of America and Linda with the Cleveland Press. One of Linda’s first assignments was to prepare a story on rural schools in southeastern Ohio and West Virginia. While interviewing school leaders for the story Linda was so taken with the small school environment that she was persuaded to take up teaching. She taught in a two room, multigrade school for 11 years and with her husband, John, also ran a small farm raising Black Angus steers.

Stricken with cancer in 1977, Linda endured extensive chemotherapy while still teaching in her small rural school. However, the two-room school was closed during her recovery, and she was transferred to a larger school. She was offered the opportunity to study in the doctoral program at Harvard University focusing on small and rural schools, and curricula development. Her marriage to John did not survive the cancer treatment, the closing of the school, and the move to Cambridge.

However, as good fortune would have it, it was at Harvard that Linda met her future husband, Stephen Fitzroy. They immediately bonded over the free dryer in the laundry room at Harvard housing on Shaler Lane and proceeded to happily do their laundry together for the next 39 years. After her marriage to Stephen in 1991, Linda became a second mother to Matthew and Samuel. Upon the death of their birth mother in 1996, she took both boys under her wing and forged a loving bond with them – nurturing them through good times and bad. Both boys, their wives, and Linda’s three grandsons shared the deep love of a devoted, doting, and adoring grandmother.

Linda served many of the small and rural communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut as both an Assistant Superintendent and a Superintendent of Schools. She formed professional and personal bonds in each state, serving as the Assistant Superintendent of the Mohawk Trail Regional Schools District, Superintendent of the Lancaster Public School System (prior to its integration into the Nashoba Regional School District), Superintendent of the Woodstock Public School System in Woodstock, CT and finally the Superintendent of the Westport Community Schools in Westport, MA where she retired in 2009 after eight years of tireless service to the Westport community. Linda felt strongly that every member of the school community played an important role in the educational process – emphasizing that teachers, parents, and school leadership set an example for each child in the system, and that children learn from what they see in the adults who surround them. She personified this philosophy throughout her professional career and in her everyday life.

A wake and viewing will be held at the Waring-Sullivan Funeral Home at 230 Russells Mills Road, Dartmouth, MA 02748 from 4:00PM until 8:00PM on Sunday, September 10, 2023. A memorial service will be held at Waring-Sullivan Funeral Home at 10:00AM on Monday, September 11, 2023, with a private interment to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Linda’s name to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the World Central Kitchen, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, or the Jimmy Fund/Dana Farber Cancer Institute – all causes dear to Linda’s heart. For online tribute: www.waring-sullivan.com.