Rick Ives of Rockport, died on February 15, 2019. He was born February 27, 1933 in Winchester, MA, to Aleda Goddu Ives and Frederick M. Ives, Jr. Rick was a 1951 graduate of Winchester High School and earned his BA from Colby College in 1956, where he met Nancy Perron at a barn dance. They were married just prior to Rick being drafted into the Army where he served for two years as a chaplain’s assistant in Hannu, Germany.
Being young and broke, they fondly remembered the Army posting as their European honeymoon. Returning stateside, Rick felt called to teaching. After arriving in Rockport for an interview, he observed Madeline Rice leading the tiny Rockport Marching Band down the back lane behind the old high school and he was hooked by the small town quirkiness.
Possessing no idea how to teach, Rick was eternally grateful to Janette Hale who showed him how to handle kids. Rick’s first love was teaching, and he thrived with the energy of eighth graders. His great gift was to teach using stories.
Many Rockporters developed an interest in history and became avid readers from his classes. His specialty was Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, and America in the 20s & 30s, and he did this with unorthodox classroom stories ranging from Squanto to Nan Britton. The smell of Rick’s pipe tobacco wafting in the classroom, his derringer cap gun and nightstick collection are now relics of a bygone era of teaching, but were much appreciated in his day.
Throughout the years, Rick relished seeing former students around town, and getting to know their younger generations. Rick’s personal joys were simple but very real: reading for hours in his favorite chair, playing jazz piano until late at night, chicken salad from Henry’s Market, Ravenswood Spring water and swimming the entire circumference of Steel Derrick every day in summer. Rick’s other love was the piano which he delighted in playing for years with Billy Crowell and Tony Torrisi and other North Shore musicians at weddings, parties and solo in restaurants.
Rick and Nancy shared 62 years of marriage and 22 years of retirement; raising four sons in Rockport when the Tool Company hammers echoed across Sandy Bay. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Nancy Ives, of Rockport, and his four sons, Geoff and Barbara Ives of Cornish, Maine, Joel and Florence Ives of Brookline, MA, Nathan and Mary Anne Ives of Rockport and Cameron and Regan Ives of Rockport. Rick’s grandchildren include Acacia, Rory, Isaiah, Helen, Nathan, Lena, Nora and Oliver Ives.
He is also survived by his brothers, Philip Ives of New Canaan, CT, and Peter Ives of Eliot, Maine, and many beloved cousins in the far-away land of Annisquam. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, February 20th, at 11am in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Rockport. Contributions in Rick’s memory may be made to the Rockport Educational Foundation, P.O. Box 836, Rockport, MA 01966, or to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 299, Rockport, MA 01966.
Arrangements by the Greely Funeral Home, 212 Washington Street, Gloucester. For online condolences, please visit www. greelyfuneralhome.com To plant a tree in memory of Frederick Ives III, please visit our Tribute Store.
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