The day after notching a surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses in January 2008, an exultant Barack Obama strode into the Concord High gymnasium, the 11th presidential candidate that cycle to make the trip.

The person responsible for transforming Concord High into a required stop on the path to the White House was Joanne McGlynn, legendary English teacher, politics aficionado, and stalwart of the Concord faculty for over 20 years.

McGlynn died of heart failure late last month at the age of 70, leaving behind a legacy of joyfulness, exceptional intelligence, leadership, and positive change in Concord, where she taught from 1986 to 2009, her friends, family and colleagues said.

“She made friends everywhere she went; she just was a very special kind of person,” said fellow retired Concord High English teacher Susan Scarcello, who stayed close with Joanne until her death. “She was very outgoing, very open, and energetic and enthusiastic.”

McGlynn was the eldest of four children, born to a Republican father and a Democratic mother in 1953. Growing up in the era of the civil rights and women’s movements and the Vietnam War, she grew politically engaged from an early age, protesting the proposed construction of an oil refinery at the bottom of her family’s street in Tiverton, Rhode Island as a child.

“The project actually was defeated and my sister’s side won,” said Jane Hoyle, one of McGlynn’s younger siblings.

That experience catapulted McGlynn into environmental and political organizing, during which her political identity as a liberal solidified, said her sister, who described McGlynn as “a little hippie-dippie” in those days. After serving as the first female class president of her high school, it was off to college, where McGlynn planned to become a lawyer, Hoyle said.

But at Providence College, she fell in love with English literature. That passion did not immediately propel her into teaching, but ultimately she found her way to Londonderry High School, where she began teaching English around 1982.

It was a natural fit.

“She got to know the students so well. She really cared about her students and just established some really strong relationships,” said Scarcello, who is decade older than McGlynn, but started at Concord High a year afterward.

In 1986, McGlynn migrated north to Concord not in search of a higher paying job or a change of scenery, but rather “because she so respected Concord High for the way they had handled the Challenger tragedy” months earlier, Scarcello recalled.

McGlynn was an instant hit among students and fellow teachers, former colleagues recalled. 

“She had great energy and great joy that she brought and shared every day,” said Jon Kelly, who began as a teacher in the English department the same year as McGlynn.

McGlynn spearheaded the department’s decision to end its practice of grouping students by academic ability, led the development of a world literature curriculum when the school district restructured the high school to include ninth grade and established a media literacy program. She also served as an assistant principal for a couple years but returned to teaching because she missed working closely with students, Hoyle said.

But it was likely her service as the adviser to the Presidential Candidates Club for which McGlynn was most known. 

“That was one of her loves,” Kelly said. “I think she’s always been interested in the world and in making the world a better place.”

The club endeavored to coordinate visits from every presidential candidate each election cycle, from leading contenders like Obama to those polling in the low single digits, and across the ideological spectrum.

“She was always very good about encouraging kids to care, but never imposing her own politics,” Kelly said.

In 2009, when McGlynn retired, she addressed the senior class at graduation.

“As President Obama told you in the gym the day after he won the Iowa primary, together we can change the world,” she said.

In McGlynn’s retirement back in Tiverton, she continued to try to change her own world, frequently traveling to Texas to tutor immigrant children in English, doting on her nieces and nephew, caring for her ailing mother, cheering on her beloved Red Sox, and showering her cats, Minou and Titou, with love.

Over the last year, McGlynn began to experience progressive heart issues and was admitted to the hospital. The day before she died, 11 days before this year’s presidential election, Hoyle picked up an absentee ballot for her sister. 

“I put the ballot in my car on Friday and I called her,” Hoyle said. “I said, ‘I’m coming tomorrow morning.’”

McGlynn passed away on October 25 and never got to vote.

At a funeral held in early November, many current and former Concord High teachers traveled to remember their dynamic, world-changing former colleague and dear friend.

“She was like a compass for so many people,” Hoyle said. “You always wanted to do what she was doing.”

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.