Muriel McConville

Muriel M. McConville, 85
First woman to chair Finance Committee, Realtor

WAKEFIELD - Muriel Marie (Shaw) McConville, 85, the first woman to chair the Wakefield Finance Committee, died Monday night, Nov. 28, at Meadowview Care and Rehabilitation Center in North Reading after a lengthy illness. She was also the former president of the Wakefield Chamber of Commerce, twice in the 1980s, and a former president of the Eastern Middlesex Board of Realtors,

The daughter of the late Albert Vincent and Eva Bernadette (Adams) Shaw, she was born Aug. 13, 1926, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Brighton. She was the niece of the late Miriam (Shaw) Murphy and Jeremiah Murphy and sister of the late Albert V. Shaw, Esq.

She graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy in Brighton in 1945 and attended Mount St. Mary College in Hooksett, N.H., before going to Burdett Business College. She worked for the city of Boston as a secretary prior to her marriage to the late Atty. Henry B. McConville in 1954.

After becoming associated with Olga Packard of Packard Realty, Mrs. McConville began taking courses from the Massachusetts Association of Real Estate Boards in 1972 and both women were designated as Certified Residential Specialists in 1979 by the Realtors National Marketing Institute.

In 1981 she took over as president of the local Chamber of Commerce, while also serving as president of the Eastern Middlesex Board of Realtors and three years after completing her year again led the Chamber in 1985-86. Before her second presidency she had set up her own firm, McConville and Gillis. In 1990 she was elected to a three year term on the Chamber's Board of Directors.

In both 1982 and 1983 she served as House-to-House Chairman of the American Cancer Society Crusade. Later, among many other services to the community, she helped with the annual Business Appeal and other fundraisers for the Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of Wakefield. There were also times when she co-chaired fundraisers with her husband Henry, once planning a Boston Harbor cruise on the Spirit of Boston as a benefit fundraiser for the Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

She joined the Finance Committee in 1987, filling a vacancy caused by the resignation of Maureen Pollman and, when she was named vice chairman in 1990, she was only the second woman to reach that position. Mrs. McConville served as chairman from 1993 to 1995 and stayed on the committee until Jan. 18, 2005, an 18 year tour of duty.

She was a devoted wife to the late Henry B. McConville from their marriage on Sept. 25, 1954 to his death 46 years later on Monday, Jan. 19, 2001, a loving mother to her three children, Janet McConville of Wakefield, former Lucius Beebe Memorial Library Trustee Kevin McConville of Southlake, Texas and Carol McConville of Melbourne, Australia and a loving aunt to her nieces, Lisa Fitzgerald of Campton, N.H., Kristen Anderson of New Canaan, Conn. and Rachel Higgins of Westwood and their families.

Her funeral will be held from the McDonald Funeral Home, 19 Yale Ave., Wakefield on Monday at 9 a.m., followed by a funeral Mass at St. Joseph Church, 173 Albion St., Wakefield at 10 o'clock. Relatives and friends may call at the funeral home Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Interment will be in Forest Glade Cemetery, Wakefield.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Citizens Scholarship Foundation of Wakefield, Muriel M. McConville and Henry B. McConville scholarship, PO Box 321, Wakefield, MA 01880. For obit, directions, guestbook, www.mcdonaldfs.com









Read Muriel McConville's Obituary and Guestbook on www.mcdonaldfs.com.

Visitation

McDonald Funeral Home
19 Yale Ave.
Wakefield , MA US 01880
Sunday, December 4, 2011, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Service

St. Joseph Church
173 Albion Street
Wakefield , MA US 01880
Monday, December 5, 2011, 10:00 AM

Cemetery

Forest Glade Cemetery
Lowell Street
Wakefield , MA US 01880
Monday, December 5, 2011, 11:30 AM