A Creative Inheritance
When Linda Varrell ’00 opened two century-old yearbooks from the Gorham Normal School (a USM predecessor), a small family mystery came into focus.
Her father had once mentioned that her grandmother’s birds were “on display” at USM. Inside the 1927 Green and White, Linda found out what he meant: the original bird illustrations and thoughtful design work of her grandmother, Mary Raeside, Class of 1927 and the yearbook’s art editor.”
Mary had emigrated from England as a child and settled with her family in Eliot, Maine. At a time when education offered women one of their few paths to a career, she attended Gorham Normal School and then became an elementary school teacher. Linda remembers her as practical, resilient and devoted to others. The yearbooks added another dimension: creativity.
The discovery punctuated a realization Linda had made in her own life. “I realized as I developed my career that I had probably been defining creativity too narrowly,” she says. Creativity, she came to understand, lives not only in art, but in how people solve problems, navigate change, and serve others.
Those abilities have defined Linda’s career. After 25 years in banking, she founded Broadreach Public Relations. Along the way, she completed USM’s Leadership and Organizational Studies program, taught graduate and undergraduate students, chaired USM Corporate Partners and joined the USM Foundation Board.
Her success has also deepened her commitment to creating opportunities for others. Linda established a USM scholarship in Mary’s name, and Broadreach has contributed generously to the arts and the Promise Scholars Program.
“If they have the ladder, they’ll climb it,” Linda says of young people seeking a chance to learn and build meaningful careers.
Nearly a century after Mary put her creativity in service to her classmates, her community, and her family, Linda is carrying that inheritance forward, combining imagination, determination and generosity to help a new generation make its mark.