Richard Manuel Medina Sr. of Peabody died on Monday, November 2, 2026 after a long illness with cancer, with his family around him. He was 85.
He was born in Peabody on January 19, 1941 and never really left it. He met Ann Elizabeth Lessard in the pudding aisle of the Primrose Supermarket, married her, and the two marked 63 years together this past August while raising three children in the city.
A member of the Peabody High School class of 1958, he went on to Merrimack College, finishing in 1963 with a degree in business administration, and then to Salem State for a master’s in education, stopping just short of a doctorate. He began teaching in Peabody in 1965 and stayed 35 years, teaching history, social studies and civics first at the Brown School, then at the Seeglitz Junior High and finally at the Higgins Middle School. For years he was the building representative for the Peabody Federation of Teachers.
Outside the classroom he coached junior varsity soccer at the high school, worked with the Boy Scouts, Peabody Little League and CYO basketball, and organized the Knights of Columbus bowling league, where his own average was something to reckon with. At St. Ann’s Parish he was a lector for decades, sat on the parish council, taught CCD on Saturdays and chaperoned youth dances.
He volunteered on campaigns at every level, favoring candidates he thought would make ordinary lives a little easier, and he and Ann were part of the committee that fought to save Brooksby Farm, which the city is now marking 50 years of owning. He planted gardens wherever he could, including the old community plot at the Seeglitz and pumpkins at the St. Ann’s rectory for the preschool to watch grow. He served many years as a trustee of the Peabody Institute Library, walked every year in the Walk for Haiti, worked monthly at My Brother’s Table and donated blood through the Red Cross by the gallon.
He leaves his wife, Ann; his sons Richard Jr. of Peabody and Stephen and his wife Jennifer (Moore) and their children Sophia Lynne and Nathan Francis, all of Peabody; his daughter Beth Ann Medina of Salem; and his siblings Frances Gray of Danvers, Frank Medina of Peabody and Phyllis Silke of Florida, along with nieces and nephews. His parents, Francis and Zulmira (Ortins) Medina, and his godmother, Leibia DeCosta, died before him.
Visiting hours are Thursday, November 5 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Conway, Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home, 82 Lynn Street, Peabody. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Friday, November 6 at 11:30 a.m. at St. Ann’s Church in Peabody, with burial to follow at St. Mary Cemetery in Salem. The family asks that, in place of flowers, gifts go to the Kaplan Family Hospice House of Care Dimensions, 78 Liberty Street, Danvers, or that people give blood in his memory at the Red Cross donation center at 99 Rosewood Drive, Danvers.
Compiled from information published by Conway, Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home, 82 Lynn Street, Peabody, (978) 531-0472. Photograph courtesy of the family via Conway, Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
