Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Summer 2007 | Page 5

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Mary Nasse: Administrator with a Heart
In early childhood, sitting around
the kitchen table and helping her
mother prepare materials for class,
Mary Nasse never thought she would
grow up to be a teacher, too.
“I used to help her prep for
lessons by cutting out hearts and
helping her make Lincoln hats.
While I a saw a lot of the work
that teachers did and it seemed
interesting to me, at that time I fully
intended to be a nurse,” says Nasse.
Years later in high school,
after getting involved with church
catechism classes for special
education students and taking
part in a reading demonstration
presented by college representatives,
Nasse was hooked. “I was so
impressed with the fact that a
teacher could have such a powerful
impact—because you teach someone
to read, and that is so critical—that
it steered me away from nursing to
teaching,” she admits.
After 30 dedicated years of
teaching and leading Maine students,
including 20 years at Thornton
Academy, Nasse is stepping away
from education and into her next
role: retirement.
Armed with a degree in special
education from Fitchburg State
College, Nasse’s first job after
coming to Maine with her husband,
Peter—also a special education
teacher—was at the Shailer School
on Portland’s Munjoy Hill. She went
on to hold various special education
positions at Old Orchard Beach High
School, Saco Middle School and Wells
High School. It was at Wells that
she first worked for then-principal
Carl J. Stasio Jr.—a relationship that
would define the next 22 years of
her professional career. She came to
Thornton in 1987.
During her 20-year association
with Thornton Academy, Nasse has
played an integral role in the success
of the Academy and its students,

faculty and staff through her roles
as both a special education teacher
and an administrator. As Thornton’s
Director of Students Services in
the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Nasse developed numerous student
assistance programs, including
Thornton’s on-site day care program,
Freshman Orientation, Project
Success, and schoolwide initiatives
such as a math and science
achievement reform effort and
Thornton’s successful 1994 school
accreditation. She and her husband
have also raised three children, all
TA alumni and two of whom work in
education today.
In 1996, Nasse left Thornton to

become principal of Gray/New
Gloucester High School. But after two
years, she returned to Thornton to
assume the newly created position of
associate headmaster.
“I went to Gray and I had a
wonderful experience. The people
there were just outstanding and
very hardworking with really very
minimal financial support. They did
incredible things,” says Nasse.
Nasse says that while she
enjoyed the opportunity to work
at a smaller school led by a
superintendent and mentoring two
assistant principals along the way,
when Headmaster Stasio approached
her two years later about taking on a

Photo by Jennifer Hass

Mary Nasse, right, spent 20 years of her professional career at
Thornton Academy. Rene Menard ‘88, left, is Thornton Academy’s
new Associate Headmaster. Menard will share Nasse’s former
job duties with Associate Headmaster Stephen Marquis, who was
hired one year ago when the Middle School opened.

new role as the equivalent of a
building principal, she couldn’t pass
it up.
As associate head, Nasse has
continued improving student
learning opportunities through her
work with alternative and special
education, parent communication
efforts, the one-to-one laptop
initiative program, and the
development of Thornton’s current
student advisor and class dean
programs.
And her efforts have not
gone unnoticed. In 2001, the
Maine Association for Curriculum
Development recognized Nasse’s
superior efforts by naming her the
2001 Educational Leader of the Year.
Also, Nasse has maintained a long
relationship with Maine Principals’
Association, most recently serving as
a mentor to a first-year principal.
While Nasse and her \ؘ[