Former Bangor School Department Superintendent Betsy Webb, 61, credited with raising her district’s academic performance over the course of her 13-year-tenure, died on Thanksgiving Day.

Webb, who reportedly passed away while in hospice care, had been named Maine Superintendent of the Year in 2012 and received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Maine School Superintendents’ Association that year as well. Webb was also a finalist for the National Women Leadership Award from the School Superintendents Association in 2019.

In 2020, Webb left Bangor schools to become a University of Maine professor.

Webb was a “devoted leader and champion of educational excellence in Bangor and the State of Maine,” the school department said in a statement. Superintendent James Tager, Webb’s successor, said the administrator’s impact on the district was “profound and lasting.”