Matt Kelley — Community Service Award
There is a vital mission for the Wellesley public schools: To ensure that all our kids, have every chance to pursue the American dream, to gain the skills, so they can make their own choices. Every town member of the school committee is dedicated to that mission.
Matt Kelley has served admirable on the school committee. It’s long hours and many meetings. But our schools must always be the crown jewels of the town.
Today, The Wellesley Celebrations Committee, a standing committee of the Select Board, Town of Wellesley honors Matt Kelley, for his service with grateful gives him our Community Service Award.
Matt is a native of the Midwest but came to the Boston area for school in 1984 and has never left. After finishing his degrees at MIT while working for BBN Communications in Cambridge. Matt joined Rocket Software in 1990, then a startup software company with three employees. Matt and his wife, Laurie, moved to Wellesley in 2004, where they have raised their four children, at different times having kids in six different Wellesley public schools.
After almost 25 years of hard work and Rocket’s success beyond dreams, he retired from software, ready for other pursuits in life. Partly out of a desire to give back to the community and partly to model civic engagement and hard work for his children, Matt ran for election to the School Committee in 2014, and to his surprise, won a seat. His six years of service on the School Committee, including two years as Chair, involved incredibly hard work, but were also incredibly gratifying. He is grateful to have had the opportunity.
Thank you, Matt Kelley for your dedication and service.