NEW ROCHELLE, NY –Robert R. “Bud” Spillane, the forceful Fairfax County school superintendent, who during a 12-year tenure, helped lift the county’s schools into the nation’s top ranks, died Saturday, July 18, 2015, in a hospital in Boston. He was 80, and lived in Pawcatuck, Conn.
Robert R. Spillane, a Senior Fellow at CAN Corporation, joined that organization in 2006 as Vice President and Director of the Center for Education. He was the U.S. Department of State Regional Education for Europe from 1997-2006. Spillane was Superintendent of Schools in Fairfax County, Va.; Boston, Mass.; New Rochelle, N.Y.; Roosevelt, N.Y.; and Glassboro, N.J. He was the New York State Deputy Commissioner of Education for four years, and he has taught and lectured at several universities, including Columbia University, Harvard University, Fordham University and New York University. Spillane started as a teacher and subsequently, in several Connecticut districts, became an elementary school principal, a secondary school principal and assistant to the superintendent.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Geraldine Shea Spillane; his children, Patricia McGrath (Thomas), Robert Spillane, Jr., Kathleen Orsi (Brian), Maura Francis (Dave) and eight grandchildren. He is also survived by two brothers, John J. Spillane and Joseph Spillane.
He was a communicant of St. Michael’s Church and a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.
Relatives and friends will be received by family on Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at Gaffney-Dolan Funeral Home, 59 Spruce St., Westerly, R.I. A Funeral Liturgy will take place on Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 95 Main Street, Stonington, Conn. There is no procession to the church from the funeral home. Burial will follow at St. Michael Cemetery, Pawcatuck, Conn. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the St. Michael Campaign Fund, 60 Liberty Street, Pawcatuck, CT 06379, in Bud’s memory.