By EVA HANEGRAAFF
NORTH READING — After a long 21-year career of beakers and periodic tables, Catherine Francis has announced her retirement as a science teacher at NRHS. While many know her as Mrs. Francis, her career journey has included much more than just her years teaching.
Francis explains, “I was a chemist for 18 years and I was in food chemistry so I relate some of that to my students in the class.” Her unique experience allows Francis to better teach about chemistry and how it applies to the real world. Francis worked in new product development at a number of companies including Welch’s, coming up with a new tropical line of fruit juices.
With this long and interesting career, it was hard for Francis to leave. “I loved working in the lab,” she explained, adding, “a lot of food manufacturers were moving out of New England and they had the labs with them so this left me with fewer and fewer opportunities.” Along with this, Francis was also not being given work in which she was interested. “I felt like my job was getting more financial, like ‘take this product with 25% juice and make it 20% juice and make sure you can’t tell the difference between them,’” she recalled. Francis’ choice to leave the lab was in large part due to these practices. She explains, “they called it ‘cost improvement’ but it was getting away from the science.”
Due to the two factors of location and ethics, Francis decided to pursue a career as a chemistry teacher. She loves being able to take what she learned in her real life experience and apply it to the classroom, and she also loves the ability it gives her to share her love of science that she was able to acquire in high school.
“I went to high school in Reading and we used to have animals in this room called a vivarium and they had snakes and rats and plants and all those different things,” she recalled. “I used to stay after school and became very friendly with the biology department, taking care of the animals and it was more hands-on than other science classes and that’s what got me really interested in science,” she said.
From her interest in animals, she went to college with a focus more in line with that interest. At UMass Amherst, Francis was studying to be a biology teacher. At UMass, though, she took more chemistry classes that she began to really like and decided to change her focus to more closely align with her interest in that subject. “That’s why I teach biochemistry. and I’m the only one who’s taught it here,” she said.
Now that her career at NRHS is approaching its close, Francis has mixed feelings about the next chapter of her life. “It’s bittersweet and I will miss the students,” she said, adding, “they’re the reason I come into work every day.” She explains that one of her favorite memories at the school was moving into the new building when all the students worked to help her set up her new room.
It is not all sad, however, as Francis now has the opportunity to devote more time to her other passions. She explains, “I have been volunteering at Woods Hole since 2011 and I love that because I enjoy working with the public so I’m going to continue that.” Woods Hole is an oceanographic institute where Francis gives guided tours. Francis is also excited to spend more time with her grandchildren.
All in all, Catherine Francis’ unconventional career journey will move on to another chapter as she heads into retirement. She has spent the past 21 years sharing her love for science and as a result has many students who will miss her next year.