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| Former Massachusetts Governor Foster Furcolo |
Excerpt from The Boston Globe
Community / 9-17-09
He was a congressman, a treasurer, and the first Italian-American governor of Massachusetts. But Foster Furcolo may now be best remembered for his gift to countless students across the state. Much of the Massachusetts political elite, some now with gray hair, canes, and jokes told for decades, gathered in the House chamber yesterday to formally dedicate the state’s community colleges to the man who established the system a half-century ago. … Furcolo proposed creating the state’s first community colleges in the late 1950s, during the postwar boom when higher-education ranks swelled, in an attempt to make getting a college degree more accessible to all. “If we fail to act positively . . . one out of every three qualified high school graduates will not find a place in a college or university,’’ Furcolo said at the time. Today, the community college system, which consists of 15 colleges, serves more than 200,000 students annually.
The Legislature approved a bill last year to name the system the Governor Foster Furcolo Community Colleges. “Where would we be without the community college system?’’ said Richard Freeland, commissioner of the Department of Higher Education. “Where would we be without Foster Furcolo?’’
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