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Reeves Elementary

School History

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1963 original school

1963 Original School

2001 school building front

2001

2001 School Building side profile

2001

The school was first built in 1963, on a portion of land that the Reeves family owned, which the city had taken for school building purposes. Due to overcrowding in the late 1990’s, the city decided to build a new building on the same site in 2001.

The school is named after Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class (E.M. 3/c) Clyde Francis Reeves, U.S. Naval Reserve. He grew up in Woburn, Mass., and his family remained there. Prior to entering the Navy in 1943, he worked in Worcester, Mass. He had boot camp at Newport, R.I. and was then was sent to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.

According to the book Woburn: A Past Observed by John D McElhiney, page 560, “he saw considerable action…, and his ship, the USS Manila Bay was in the fighting during the Battle of Leyte Gulf” in the Philippines, October 22-27, 1944. On January 8, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur was preparing to land his Sixth Army, to attack the Japanese forces as Luzon, P.I., when Reeves’ ship came under air attack. He was at his battle station, manning a searchlight, remaining there, “disregarding his own safety, until he was fatally wounded” when a bomb exploded. He was buried at sea and was survived by his parents and four sisters.