by Qinglong Diep
The Lowell School Committee voted unanimously this past Wednesday night to name two new spaces at Lowell High School in honor of the late Senator Edward J. Kennedy Jr. and former Mayor and LHS Headmaster William J. Samaras.
The new academic building at the corner of Arcand Drive and Father Morissette Boulevard will bear Kennedy’s name, while the Student Support Center located between the main entrance and cafeteria will be named after Samaras.
According to the biography submitted with the nomination by Lynne Dailey, Kennedy served four terms on the Lowell City Council beginning in 1978, returned to the council in 2012 and was elected mayor in 2016. As mayor, he led the push to keep the high school in downtown.
The 1969 LHS graduate also served as Middlesex County Commissioner and was elected to the State Senate in 2018, where he chaired the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets and championed the Student Opportunity Act, a rewrite of the state’s school funding formula.
Mayor Erik Gitschier recalled Kennedy’s role securing funding for a football field at Greater Lowell Technical High School.
“He was the only one of the reps that got back to us,” Gitschier said. “He delivered the millions of dollars so that those kids could have the same thing that everybody else had. And he never once promoted it.”
Samaras began his career at Lowell High School in 1965 and retired as Head of School in 2010 said City Councilor Daniel Rourke during Wednesday’s meeting. He later served four terms on the city council alongside Rourke and a two year term as mayor. He currently chairs the Lowell Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
During the Naming AD HOC Subcommittee meeting held on Tuesday August 11, City Councilor Vesna Nuon recalled how Samaras worked with local police and the Middlesex District Attorney’s office to address gang activity at the high school during his time at the helm, and that he focused on helping students rather than punishing them.
Former state Senator Steve Panagiotakis, who spoke in support of both nominations, described the city’s civic history in his address to the committee.
“Our city is like a great big beautiful tree with many branches, leaves of all different colors, sizes and shapes,” Panagiotakis said. “But its strength and vitality comes from its roots. And those roots are the contributions of Lowellians over the last 200 years.”
School Committee member Dave Conway, who worked under Samaras at the high school, said he was proud to support both nominations.
“His door was always open,” Conway said. “We didn’t necessarily always agree, but I will tell you one thing: He cared a lot about Lowell High School and the city of Lowell.”
Family members and friends of both honorees attended Wednesday’s meeting, including Kennedy’s brother, Dan Kennedy, and cousin Frank Heslin, who told the committee that four generations of the Kennedy family had graduated from Lowell High.
Both naming opportunities went through a multistep process, with the Samaras Student Center originating with a joint City Council motion from by Councilors Rourke and Nuon this past June. The Kennedy academic building began with a School Committee motion filed by Dominik Lay in November of 2025.
