The Swellesley Report

Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Education

Commencement speakers revealed for Babson, MassBay & Wellesley College

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All three Wellesley college—Babson College, MassBay Community College, and Wellesley College—have revealed this spring’s commencement speakers for the classes of ’26.

Babson of course is going with a couple of entrepreneurial leaders for its May 16 ceremony.

C. Dean Metropoulos, Babson ’67, MBA’68, is executive chairman and CEO of the family-owned investment firm Metropoulos & Co. and minority owner of the New England Patriots. He’ll speak at the undergraduate ceremony, recognizing more than 740 students.

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C. Dean Metropoulos

Adriana Cisneros, CEO of global enterprise Cisneros, will speak at the graduate ceremony, where 540 students will receive their diplomas. The Cisneros business spans media and entertainment, consumer goods, digital innovation, global connectivity, and real estate.

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Adriana Cisneros

MassBay, the state-owned school with a Wellesley campus, has tapped Lt. Gov. Kimberly Driscoll as its commencement speaker for the May 28 ceremony.

Lt Gov Kimberly Driscoll
Lt .Gov. Kimberly Driscoll

Wellesley College has invited Rice University distinguished fellow Ruth J. Simmons to speak at its commencement ceremony on Friday, May 15. Simmons has served as president of Smith College, Brown University, and historically Black university Prairie View A&M.

Ruth J. Simmons
Ruth J. Simmons

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Business buzz: Wellesley restaurants on Spring Seasonings roster; Code Ninjas opens in Wellesley Hills

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The latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:
 

Wellesley restaurants on Spring Seasonings roster

 
spring seasoningsThe Charles River Regional Chamber’s annual Spring Seasonings: A Taste of our Towns event returns on April 13 at the Newton Marriott (5:30-8pm) and Wellesley restaurants will be well represented.

This year, forty local restaurants will come together to showcase their distinctive and diverse cuisines, and they will be complemented by beverage exhibitors showcasing their offerings.

This year’s Wellesley restaurant participants:

● Alta Strada
● black & blue Steak and Crab
● Captain Marden’s
● Fiorella’s
● Papa Razzi
● Playa Bowls
● Smith & Wollensky
● Truly’s

Tickets: $75 for chamber members / $100 for non-members. Prices increase on April 1. Tickets are available at www.charlesriverchamber.com/spring-seasonings. No tickets will be sold at the door.
 

 

Know of Wellesley businesses opening or closing? Fill us in: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

 

 

Code Ninjas now in Wellesley Hills

 
Code Ninjas, a place for kids to learn coding, robotics and more in a fun environment, this week held a ribbon cutting for its new location at 386 Washington St.

There had previously been a Code Ninjas location in Linden Square that opened in 2019.

The new Wellesley Hills Code Ninja will celebrate with a grand opening on March 28 from 10am-2pm.
 

 

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Obituary: Beth McGinty, 94, of Duxbury and Wellesley

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Beth McGinty, 94, of Duxbury and Wellesley, Massachusetts, died peacefully at home with her family on March 23, 2026. Intelligent, witty and kind, Beth’s strength, curiosity, integrity and humor have been a delight to those who knew her. Always invested in others, Beth managed life’s joys and challenges by focusing her extraordinary talent on those she loved, both her large family and the countless children she taught in her long career.

Beth McGinty
Beth McGinty

Beth loved her family first, especially her children, Kathy Griffin and her husband Rob, Ellen Grieco and her husband Bill, and John McGinty and his wife Ingrid, her grandchildren, Ellen Callahan and her husband Jeff and Sarah Ducas and her husband Matt, Matthew and Emily Grieco, and Christy Brantley and her husband Geoff, Caitlin, Shannon and Anna McGinty, and her great grandchildren, Jack and Dorothy Callahan and Griffin, Natalie and Theo Ducas and Knox and Hunter Brantley.

Born in Worcester, Beth grew up and lived primarily in Massachusetts near her much loved Boston and in the heart of New England – the best, maybe the only, place to live. The daughter of Thomas and Hester Dignan, she treasured her beloved brother Thomas Dignan Jr. and his wife Mary Anne, who have survived her, her sisters, the late Joan Fuller, Hester Curtis, Ellen Dignan, and Marian Drury, and her many nieces and nephews.

A graduate of Abbot Academy and Boston University, Beth was a public school teacher for over 50 years, first in Boston, and later in the field of special education in Wellesley, teaching thousands of children to be curious, kind and confident and to love themselves whatever their abilities or challenges. She loved children and understood them in an extraordinary way, entering their world with joy, enthusiasm and no judgment. With her special appeal for young children, she communicated effortlessly, almost magically with them throughout her life. Beth’s many different grandchildren and great grandchildren all loved her as a kindred spirit.

We love her. Beth was charming and uplifting as a field of daffodils on a Spring morning, she had a curious and discerning intellect and a warm and kind heart, and she was a truly extraordinary mother.

The family plans a private burial and celebration of life.

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Friday is Letters to the Editor day on The Swellesley Report

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The Swellesley Report accepts letters to the editor. Letters must be of general local community interest and must be signed. Community shout-outs are also accepted and encouraged. For example, a non-profit may thank an organization for a donation received.

In a letter this week

  • New School Committee member Costas Panagopoulos thanks Wellesley voters

See more letters here.

How to submit your letter to the editor

The deadline is Wednesday at noon for letters to appear that week, or a week further out. Send letters to the editor to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Submitting a letter to the editor does not guarantee that your letter will be posted on The Swellesley Report.

Letters must be written for The Swellesley Report only—we do not accept form-type letters sent to multiple news agencies.

Please review detailed guidelines for letters to the editor here.

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

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Watch the Wellesley Health Department’s Community Health Needs Assessment forum recording

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The Wellesley Health Department this week hosted a community forum at the Wellesley Police station to discuss the results of its recent Community Health Needs Assessment, and how the town can best use these results to plan for Opioid Abatement Fund Spending. Wellesley Media recorded the session, which lasted about an hour.

We reported on the assessment earlier this year (See “Wellesley health checkup: Strong resources, lingering mental health gaps”)

The Wellesley Health Department is also gearing up for National Public Health Week, which starts on April 6.

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Wellesley has an MBTA Communities zoning taker on Laurel Avenue

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16 Laurel Ave, The Laurel, Babson House
16 Laurel Ave.

The one-time multi-tenant office building at 16 Laurel Ave. in Wellesley Hills has been cordoned off with fencing, ready for its planned transition into a 28-unit condo complex within one of the town’s MBTA Communities Law zones.

This four-story project would be the first new development in town to take advantage of the state law designed to encourage more housing near public transportation, in this case the Wellesley Hills commuter rail station. Wellesley complied with that law in 2024. Laurel Avenue is on the opposite site of Washington Street from the commuter rail station, near Le Petit Four Bakery.

A three-story high-end condo development at 592 Washington St. next to The Belclare condo complex could have qualified for MBTA Communities zoning relief but the developer chose to go a different route—via the Project of Significant Impact process—to a gain greater project density of 19 units.

Whether the Laurel Avenue project (shown as “The Laurel” in one rendering submitted to the town by the applicant) produces true “missing middle housing” envisioned by MBTA Community architects remains to be seen, once prices are revealed. But some housing advocates argue that pretty much any increase in supply will help with efforts to address the area housing shortage.

Rendering of The Laurel by Christopher Russ Architects

The 16 Laurel Ave. proposal is slated to go before the Wellesley Zoning Board of Appeals for a public hearing for site plan approval starting on April 16. The approvals process may naturally be less visible to the public than other recent multi-family housing proposals in that the project will go through a permitting process that involves fewer town bodies.

A nice tidy project narrative submission is not a requirement for the site plan approval process, but a handful of documents have been submitted by Jeff Birnbaum (Babson House, LLC, Pioneer Construction). These include the construction plan (work from 7am-5pm weekdays, 8am-4pm Saturdays), trip generation analysis, stormwater report, and more, so you can kind of piece together a picture from them (we swear there was a mention of abutter notices posted at one point, too). We reached out to Birnbaum to invite him to share any more details, such as anything about affordable units.

Wellesley Executive Director Meghan Jop says, “They have been evaluating this site for some time to convert to residential units. It is a good location and I think the developers have a thoughtful design. There will be a number of considerations to review during site plan.”

According to a real estate listing, the structure at 16 Laurel Ave. was constructed in 1919 by Roger Babson, founder of Babson College, and renovated in 2001.

Some are tracking MBTA Communities projects, so 16 Laurel Ave. may soon get added to the map.

 

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Sports

French soccer ‘bleus’: World Cup team reportedly not training in Wellesley after all

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Reports surfaced early this year—including here—that the French World Cup soccer team, Les Bleus, had chosen Babson College as its training site. However, reports out of France’s L’Equipe newspaper this week say it looks as if the team will train instead at Bentley University in Waltham.

fffBabson declined to comment on the original reports of the soccer team coming here in January. We’ve reached out for comment on the latest, and will update this post if we hear back.

The French Football Federation in January said it had chosen Babson College as its home base for this summer’s FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. It posted a video showing FFF officials touring the grounds at the Wellesley business school.

Their arrival would have created both excitement and public safety challenges in town.

Les Bleus—led by star player Kylian Mbappé—is set to play Norway at the rebranded Boston Stadium in Foxborough on June 26 as part of the opening group stage World Cup matches.

France and Brazil actually have a friendly match slated for this Thursday in Foxborough.

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Public safety

Roofer injured after falling 30 feet while working on Wellesley home

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Boston MedFlight helicopter at Sprague Field.(Photo courtesy of EE)

 
Emergency crews responded late Tuesday afternoon to Old Colony Road in Wellesley after a roofer fell 30 feet to the ground and suffered serious injuries. He was transported to Sprague Field, from where a Boston MedFlight helicopter took him to a Boston hospital.

According to Wellesley Police, the man landed on his feet and sustained significant trauma throughout his body.

Wellesley Police, Wellesley Fire Department, and Natick Medics responded to the call.

An investigation into site conditions continues.

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Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, 2026