NASHUA – The Nashua Artists’ Association, which is celebrating its 70th year, announced that a scholarship has been named in memory of painter Robert E. LeRoy.

Two scholarships will be awarded to Nashua-area students; both are for $750 and the second scholarship will be awarded by sponsor Enterprise Bank.

LeRoy’s widow, Mary Ann, spoke affectionately of her late soft-spoken husband, who arrived on the art scene late in his life.

“I wouldn’t say he was necessarily shy,” she said. “I’m the one that would yack all the time and he was the quiet one. He didn’t care for useless chatter. He was a Leo and a perfectionist in everything he did.”

Born in Boston, Mr. LeRoy moved to southern New Hampshire in 1977. He owned and operated two hair salons, and worked in others, for 44 years. His wife Mary Ann said he became interested in art as a child, often doodling- something he did as an adult as well.

“Every time he’d doodle, I’d make him sign them,” she said with a hearty laugh. “I kept them over the years. We were together for 31 years. And he’d always ask me, ‘Why do I have to sign them?’ I said, ‘Well, who knows?'”

Mary Ann LeRoy said she misses her husband “immensely,” but has 79 of his paintings adorning the walls of her one bedroom apartment at Wagner Court.

“I don’t know what to do with them,” she said. “I have more. He did so many in such a short span of time. It’s a great reminder of his talent.”

Mrs. LeRoy said he loved painting landscapes the most.

He also painted animals, some portraits and abstracts. She has many paintings that she would never part with.

“I have one that I will never get rid of,” she said. “He actually painted his own portrait. His favorite painting was of Marilyn Monroe.”

Not long after retiring, Mr. LeRoy was diagnosed with bone cancer in his leg and it was while he was recuperating that he expressed to Mary Ann that he would like to try painting.

“When he had his paintings at St. Joseph’s for the first time, he did sell one,” she said. Acrylics was his media of choice.

Mary Ann said that her husband was a self-taught artist and was offered a job with one of the major car manufacturers when he was 15 years-old.

“Somewhere along the way, he had to have done something that had impressed someone,” she said. “I’m assuming it was sketches that he did in pen or pencil. It caught someone’s eye. But he said he was too young and didn’t know what to do with his life just yet.”

When Mr. LeRoy was 19, Mary Ann said her husband “bluffed his way onstage in Florida and sang five songs.”

“After he got off stage, he was offered a recording contract and a spot on Dick Clark’s weekly show,” she added. “He turned that down, too.”

Mary Ann said her husband had incredible talent and even his writing, with exquisite penmanship, often garnered people’s attention. Mr. LeRoy even wrote a poem after the Columbine tragedy, which Mary Ann holds close to her heart.

“He wasn’t really poetic,” she said. “I only know of this one.”

Mr. LeRoy was a member of the NAAA and the Art Hub and his artwork was hung outside Macy’s at the Pheasant Lane Mall, at St. Joseph Hospital’s “Healing Through the Arts,” and at the Mayor’s office in Nashua.

The LeRoys often gallery-sat at the Art Hub on W. Pearl Street.

Mary Ann retired at age 62 and she said she is so glad she did.

“I got to spend the last two-and-a-half years with him,” she said. “Unbeknownst to me that he would pass. We never planned on that.”

For information about the scholarships, visit www.nashuaarts.org/2021-scholarships.

Lion

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