Mary Ellen (Keogh) Osgood, of North Andover, Massachusetts, passed away, January 3, 2026, surrounded by those closest to her.
Born on June 11, 1941, in Northampton, Massachusetts, Mary Ellen was the daughter of the late Arthur Connor Keogh and Margaret (Kennedy) Keogh. She grew up in Northampton adjacent to the Smith College campus and attended Northampton School for Girls (now Williston Northampton School). While living in the Pioneer Valley, Mary Ellen met and married her first husband, Robert Allan Williams, and moved to Boston. In 1965, they moved to North Andover with their young daughter. In 1971, Mary Ellen married Gayton Osgood, and they enjoyed a 32 year marriage until Gayton’s death, in 2003.
Building her resume over the years, Mary Ellen worked first in human resources and then as the assistant director for the Andover Recreation Department. In the mid-1970s, she enrolled in classes at Merrimack College and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history and a teaching certificate in hand. After turns working for several social service agencies, Mary Ellen began a 23-year career teaching in the history department at North Andover High School. During the 1970s, Mary Ellen wrote a series of oral histories for the North Andover Citizen and for inclusion in the Cochichewick Chronicles. Later, the North Andover Improvement Society published some of these, plus some new entries, in a small book entitled “Looking Back – North Andover People and Places.”
Mary Ellen served on the Stevens Memorial Library Board of Trustees for 22 years. She was Chair and a member of the building committee that researched designs, championed blueprints, and helped to procure funding for the library addition and renovation dedicated in 1995. Mary Ellen was passionate about books, history, art and travel. With close friends, she travelled extensively over the years throughout Europe, to Africa, to China, Thailand, and Cambodia, Mexico and across the Untied States. She was known for mentoring young students, volunteering at Bread & Roses, Lawrence General Hospital, and the Stevens Memorial Library book sales, serving as a registrar at Town elections and tutoring older adults in learning English. This last, bringing a love of books to people for the first time, was perhaps her proudest achievement.
Mary Ellen will be remembered as a devoted teacher, stalwart North Andover Citizen, and caring companion to family and close friends. She is survived by her daughter, Andrea Williams of North Andover.
Visiting Hours: A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, January 17, at 10:00 am, at The North Parish of North Andover Unitarian Universalist Church, at 190 Academy Road, in North Andover, followed by an informal reception in the public space downstairs. There will be a private Burial at Ridgewood Cemetery in the Spring.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either Friends of the Stevens Memorial Library (PO Box 992, North Andover, MA 01845 – Friendsofstevensmemlib-na.org) or the North Andover Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 524, North Andover, MA 01845 – Memo: Mary Ellen Osgood – https://www.nascholarship.org/donate.htm
