Nora Delano, a highly regarded and respected English teacher at Duxbury High School, died Jan. 30 at a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., after complications following a broken leg.  Mrs. Delano was a winter resident of Apache Junction, Ariz., and has suffered with emphysema for the past 15 years.

Nora Delano, a highly regarded and respected English teacher at Duxbury High School, died Jan. 30 at a hospital in Scottsdale, Ariz., after complications following a broken leg.  Mrs. Delano was a winter resident of Apache Junction, Ariz., and has suffered with emphysema for the past 15 years.

From 1975 to 1991, Mrs. Delano taught high school English, including several electives in the English Department. One of these, Speech and Debate, became one of the most popular courses in the English curriculum, largely because of her ability to engage her students in the craft of self-expression.

Mrs. Delano also served as Junior Class Advisor, and advisor to the yearbook.  She advised and chaperoned many Junior Proms.

Though she had retired from DHS, Mrs. Delano is nevertheless well-remembered among her former colleagues and students as a teacher with great depth and compassion, a person of fiery social and political opinions, and a woman of great style. She loved world traveling, especially to warm weather climates such as Morocco, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Santo Domingo, where she and her husband Martin owned a second home.

While Mrs. Delano could relate to all students, she had a special flair for those who found the high school’s academic and social life difficult to master. Former students remember the painstaking hours she spent working to help them master skills she knew were necessary to their development.

One retired guidance counselor, who worked closely with her, remembers Mrs. Delano’s work ìnot just with top-notch students, but especially the unmotivated, potential drop-outs.î

As a reward for their efforts in the warm weather, many of her students were treated to top-down rides around town in her fire-engine red Buick convertible. These rides, she would say, were a reward for ìcivilized behavior.î

A strong advocate for women’s rights, Mrs. Delano is well-remembered for her exotic flair, stylish clothes and quick wit.

A former colleague remembered that, ìNora taught all of us young teachers the hard work teachers before us had expended to secure benefits such as maternity leave and sick days in our contractÖAs a feminist, she taught a generation of young women (and teachers) at DHS that it is a good thing to be a woman, and a strong one at that.î

Mrs. Delano received her BS in Education from Bridgewater State, and earned a master’s degree in Special Education from Southern Connecticut State College.  She was a member of the Duxbury Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association as well as the Duxbury Garden Club and First Parish Unitarian Church. An active member of the Marshfield Agricultural and Horticultural Society, she was a Director of the Marshfield Fair and oversaw the concessionaires.

Many years ago Mrs. Delano established the Atwell Memorial Fund in Durham, Conn. where she had lived. This scholarship is in memory of her adopted parents, Bishop and Mabel Atwell, who raised her from the age of two until she was a teenager.

Mrs. Delano was born Nora Migliorati in Havana, Cuba. She leaves her husband, Martin Delano; her brother B. Robert Atwell; and the Delano’s son, Thomas C. Martin and grandson Wesley Martin Free Delano.

Donations in Mrs. Delano’s memory can be written to the Bishop and Mabel Atwell Scholarship Fund and mailed to Cauginchog High School, P.O. Box 120, Durham, CT 06422.