By David Nathan

Equal parts teacher, mentor, writer/editor, cheerleader, mother, and chef (Bolognese a specialty), Marie Franklin proudly answered to the “Professor Mom” nickname she acquired shortly after joining the Lasell faculty as a visiting professor in 2008.

Whether in front of a journalism class, at the offices of the 1851 Chronicle, or hosting groups of students at her Newton home for a family-style Italian dinner, Franklin imparted valuable journalism and life lessons to her students for 14 years.

“Students saw me as someone they could learn from, but I learned from them, too. It was reciprocal,” Franklin says.

With the end of the spring semester, the nature of those mutually beneficial relationships forever changed; Franklin retired from Lasell to spend more time with her husband, Bill, and their daughters and three grandchildren, and begin to tick items off her lengthy travel bucket list.

“Marie is a gifted teacher, talented journalist, and valued colleague whose legacy is evident not just in the journalism program she’s defined and the students she’s inspired, but in the impressive network of 1851 Chronicle alumni making their mark in the world,” says Meryl Perlson, Marie’s longtime colleague and interim dean of the School of Communication and the Arts.

Franklin enjoyed two distinct teaching venues at Lasell: the classrooms where she taught journalism, magazine and feature writing, and media ethics and society, and the offices of the 1851 Chronicle, the learning laboratory where she advised aspiring journalists in production of a monthly campus newspaper.

A full-time faculty member beginning in 2009, she helped to reinvigorate Lasell’s journalism curriculum and enhanced the campus newspaper, which has not missed a month of publication in the last 14 years — even during the pandemic — and has built a website and social media presence.

The opportunity to teach at Lasell came at the perfect time in Franklin’s life. She was ready for new challenges after a decorated career as a writer and editor at The Boston Globe, and had the urge to return to the classroom after 10 years as a high school teacher in the ’70s and ’80s.

“Coming to Lasell was like returning to my roots,” she recalls. “I’m an educator at heart.”

Perhaps she connected so well with her Lasell students because they reminded Franklin of herself. “I wanted my students to know that they were very capable and that I believed in them.”