'Fell in love with Taunton': Croteau remembered as tireless fighter for elderly and kids

TAUNTON — Some say that “My Way” became Frank Sinatra’s signature song.

Gerald Croteau never sang during Taunton City Council meetings. But anyone who watched him in action through the years knew that he never hesitated to make his voice heard in a uniquely insistent, yet deceptively understated, manner.

“He could argue a dog off a bone,” is how former council colleague David Pottier puts it. “Dr. Croteau was a classic public servant,” Pottier added. “He fought tooth and nail, but to his credit he held no grudges."

Croteau, who died Saturday, Sept. 30, at the age of 86 after a lengthy illness, served eight two-year terms on the City Council. He also was Taunton’s superintendent of schools from 1981 to 2002.

The Millbury native and his late wife Eleanor, who in 2009 died after suffering a fall in their Tremont Street home, raised four children and previously lived in Maine, New Hampshire and the Bay State towns of Pembroke and South Hadley before settling in the Silver City.

Croteau earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1979 and taught high school history, French and Latin before embarking on a career in school administration.

“He was a good man. He helped a lot of kids and cared deeply about city government,” said former four-term mayor and five-term city councilor Thomas Hoye.

Hoye, who now serves as Bristol County probate register, says before becoming acquainted with the elder Croteau he had met his son Andre when they both were sixth graders at Mulcahey Elementary School.

Hoye, 54, eventually taught health and physical education at Taunton High School during Croteau’s tenure as superintendent of schools.

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Croteau, in 2011, unsuccessfully challenged Hoye in that year’s city’s mayoral race. Both Croteau and former city councilor Donald Cleary, who died just over a month ago and like Croteau had been superintendent of schools, lost bids for reelection to the City Council in 2021.

When Croteau ran for re-election in 2021, he told the Gazette: "I enjoy helping people, and this is a way of doing that."

Hoye said there was no rancor between himself and Croteau during the mayoral campaign of 2011.

“Dr. Croteau handled it like a pro. For him it was not about personal gain. It was about the city,” Hoye said, adding that Croteau “left his mark on the Taunton public schools and on the city as a whole.”

Croteau’s namesake can also be found inside the Benjamin A. Friedman Middle School, where the Gerald A. Croteau Theater resides. It was named for him in 2003 after his retirement as superintendent.

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Pottier, who is now serving a ninth City Council term, said Croteau was especially concerned about the quality of care and services provided to military veterans, senior citizens and school children.

“Those were his causes,” he said.

Pottier said when Croteau began his first term as a city councilor in 2008 it took a while before he became acclimated to his surroundings.

“He had to come around to being one of nine and not in charge,” he said. “But he made the adjustment.”

As for Croteau’s reputation for paying close attention to detail — especially when it came to financial expenditures — and his occasional feistiness, Pottier said: “I think he actually appreciated debating on the council floor.”

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“He was a classic Truman, Roosevelt, JFK Democrat but not progressive at all,” Pottier said. "God bless him.”

Croteau, however, did attend the 2017 national Women’s March in Washington D.C. in support of women’s rights after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president.

Pottier also credited Croteau for being “a prime mover” when it came to pushing for the funding of construction of new schools in the city.

Former state rep Fagan recalls Croteau as tenacious educational advocate

Recently retired defense attorney and former 3rd Bristol district state Rep. James Fagan said Croteau was an effective and dogged advocate when it came to building new public schools in Taunton.

He recalled driving to Beacon Hill with Croteau to meet with then Speaker of the House Tom inneran — to ask Finneran’s help in providing money for new schools in Taunton when it appeared that no such funding would be forthcoming from the state budget.

Fagan said Finneran and Croteau had a “personal, face-to-face meeting for half an hour. They hit it off very well.”

“Tom said he would move things in the budget, but he said he had to extend it (similar funding) out to five other towns so it didn’t look like Taunton was being favored.”

That budgetary allocation, Fagan said, eventually led to the construction and opening of both the Joseph C. Chamberlain Elementary School in 2000 and Benjamin A. Friedman Middle School in 2001.

“He was so well-spoken and such a positive man,” Fagan, 75, said of Croteau.

“Gerry was like an innovator,” he said. “He was a very, very aggressive guy when it came to building schools in the city of Taunton (and) I feel very privileged to say we worked together to get two new, state of the art schools.”

Fagan described Croteau as “a man of his word” who was “very, very direct in doing things.”

“He was not subtle in telling people they’re not doing a good job when he was superintendent,” Fagan said. “But his commitment to excellence was unmatched. He wanted Taunton to have the best school department and best facilities in the state of Massachusetts.”

Fagan said one of the reasons his wife Christine — now in her 28th year as a Taunton School Committee member — first decided to run for public office was because she objected to how Croteau was handling certain things as superintendent.

But he said it wasn’t too long before his wife became convinced that Croteau knew what he was doing.

“They came to appreciate each other and became the best of friends,” Fagan said.

He also referred to Croteau, Cleary and the late school committee member and math teacher Joseph Martin, who died in 2021, as “a triumvirate” when it came to seeking to improve the quality of public education in Taunton.

“Dr. Croteau fell in love with the city of Taunton and made a full commitment to be here,” Fagan said, adding that “I could always count on his word, and that says a lot.”

Visiting hours for Croteau are Friday, Oct. 6, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Silva Funeral Home at 80 Broadway. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Saturday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Church at 14 St. Mary’s Square. Internment for immediate family members will be in Notre Dame Cemetery in Worcester.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Taunton superintendent, City Councilor Gerald Croteau remembered