Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mario Andrade delivers his remarks during the final tour of Elm Street Middle School on June 25. Courtesy photo/Nashua ETV

NASHUA – The cafeteria at Elm Street Middle School was filled, perhaps for the last time, on June 25 as alumni joined current and former faculty members for one final good-bye.

“The spirit of Elm Street lives within all of us,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mario Andrade. “Even though we’re closing the doors, it’s really a celebration of life.”

Edward Lecius of the Class of 1970, described how he used to sneak out of school to get to his job as a news reporter at radio station WSMN 1590.

“It worked fine until I was in downtown Nashua reporting from a fire one morning,” he said.

Lecius said he was caught by then-Superintendent of Schools Edmnund Keefe who demanded to know why Lecius was not in school.

In the years that followed, Lecius went on to become president and general manager of what is now WGHM Radio. He then became the program director at the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce before serving for 20 years as the city’s community police coordinator. Lecius has also been a member of the Nashua Lions Club since 1971.

Nancy Sargent-Plourde was a student when the building was Nashua Senior High School. She graduated in 1967. Having attended private school beforehand, she said Elm Street taught her how to thrive in a larger school environment and ultimately “made her a better person.”

After high school, Sargent-Plourde went on to study nursing at Central Connecticut State University and at the Elliot Hospital School of Nursing.

Ted Michos, who also graduated in 1967, said that unlike some of the newer schools, the Elm Street building had multiple floors.

“It was a lot more walking up and down the stairs,” he said. “We were one of the healthier classes.”

Michos received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Rivier University and is now president of All Types Printing.

Michos said he and 18 of his classmates still get together for breakfast every month.

James Naro, who graduated in 1975, said he remembered seeing Aerosmith play at the school in 1971.

Although he nearly failed out of high school, Naro went on to graduate in the top 10 percent of his class at Purdue University.

“Coming back is a full circle experience for me,” he said of Elm Street.

Naro is now a sales force management professor at Southern New Hampshire University.

Completed in 1937, construction of the Elm Street School was funded in part by a $270,000 federal grant under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. With 952 students, it was the third largest middle school in the state, according to niche.com.