A Family’s College Goal

Maureen Whitcomb joins the last of her quadruplets in earning a bachelor’s degree from UMass Lowell

By Mark E. Vogler

Precinct 4 Town Meeting Member Maureen Whitcomb, a single mother of quadruplets, set a lofty goal for herself more than six years ago. She aspired to a college education with plans to graduate with all four children – two daughters and two sons – from UMass Lowell on the same day. But things didn’t happen the way the Saugus family had hoped.

“COVID kind of messed things up,” Whitcomb told The Saugus Advocate last week.

“When they started, I wanted to start. But COVID hit and I went to work,” she said, recalling how the pandemic of early 2020 and the following year changed the trajectory of the Whitcomb college plans.

It took three commencements in four years for Whitcomb and her children to finally achieve that goal. Collette and Diana graduated in 2023. Andrew got his diploma from UMass Lowell a year later and earned his master’s degree in 2025. Whitcomb graduated with her son Bryce last Saturday during commencement exercises at the Tsongas Center in Lowell.

“I never thought this would happen, given our family situation,” Bryce, 25, said last week, joining his mom in an interview.

“I thought we were stuck and we were all going to get dead-end jobs that didn’t pay much. After graduating from high school, I didn’t think I was going to get here,” he said.

“The four of us [children] wouldn’t have gone to college if it wasn’t for my mom. I’m proud of her and the four of us graduating from college,” he said.

Bryce, who is a 2019 Saugus High School graduate, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from UMass Lowell, with concentration in management information systems. He plans to pursue a master’s degree, with possible plans for a career in the IT field or cybersecurity.

Whitcomb wore a decorated mortarboard that beamed with pride: “First Gen Quadruplets & Mom.”

“I just didn’t want them to end up uneducated like me,” Whitcomb said.

“Today, you need a college education to get a good job. Because I never graduated from college, I wanted them to be college graduates,” she said.

“It was a goal – something that I always wanted. Seeing my kids go to high school and start college made me believe I could do it, too. You know, it’s never too old to get a college education. A couple of years ago, I remember reading about a grandmother graduating with her granddaughter,” she said.

Whitcomb graduated magna cum laude, earning a Bachelor of Science of Business Administration. Whitcomb credits her sons Andrew and Bryce with getting her to start classes at UMass Lowell in the summer of 2023.

“If it wasn’t for Bryce, I wouldn’t have gotten through this,” Whitcomb recalled of some trouble she had with math before she got help from her son.

Whitcomb maintains a busy schedule as she strives for a better life for herself and her family. In addition to being a Town Meeting member, she sits on the Saugus Housing Authority and has served as a volunteer on several other town boards.

She’s also thinking about furthering her education. “Now that I’ve done this [graduated from college] and know that I can do the work, I don’t think I will have a problem finishing my master’s degree,” she said.