Interview with Massachusetts's Longest Serving School Superintendent, Dr. Gerry Paist

Gerry Paist has been the Superintendent of the Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School District in Palmer, Massachusetts since 1974 and is currently the longest-serving school superintendent in Massachusetts. He credits that longevity to the students and staff of the District and especially to the outstanding members of the Pathfinder School Committee (a.k.a. School Board). Previously he spent six years as an administrator at Westfield State College in the office of the Vice President and Academic Dean. At Westfield State, he oversaw the Vocational Teacher Training Program and was responsible for creating the college’s first full-time day graduate program in the Administration of Occupational Education. A native of Pennsylvania, Gerry grew up and attended high school in suburban Philadelphia. In the fall of 1957, he entered Lafayette College where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961. Following graduation from Lafayette, he went directly to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education where he received his M.A.T. degree in June 1962. He subsequently served as a mathematics teacher in the public schools of Wayland and Stoneham, Massachusetts. In 1966 he received a leave of absence from Stoneham to pursue doctoral work at Harvard where he received his Ed.D. from the Graduate School of Education’s Administrative Career Program in June 1971. Gerry reports that a school superintendent’s position is often a 70-hour week, but he finds time to be a season ticket holder for the Springfield (MA) Thunderbirds hockey team, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Broadway in Boston, City Stage, and the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center. Gerry’s professional associations include the American Association of School Administrators, Mass. Assn. of School Superintendents, Mass. Assn. of Vocational Administrators, Mass. Vocational Assn. and ACTE. He is a long time Board Member and past Chairman of the Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce in Palmer, Mass.