Note: no new members joined in 1962 or 1963.
1964
Charles F. B. Richardson — senior vice-president, Berkshire Life Insurance Company. He came to Berkshire Life in 1960 as head of the insurance finance division, after having served as associate actuary of Mutual Life of New York. He was born in Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He began is career with the Scottish Life Assurance Company in Edinburgh. In 1931 he joined an insurance company in Canada, and in 1938 moved to the United States. He was, in 1960, a fellow of the Society of Actuaries, and an associate of the British Institute of Actuaries. In 1963 he was named a senior vice president at Berkshire Life with responsibilities including actuarial, health insurance, underwriting, electronic data processing and accounting operations, and all phases of product development and research. He retired from Berkshire Life in October, 1969, and joined the consulting firm of Bowles, Andrews & Towne in Atlanta, Georgia. He died in 1991.
Kelton Miller Burbank ("Kim") — attorney in Pittsfield. Born 1935(?); died June 29th, 2015. He was a graduate of the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and received his Bachelor of Arts from Williams College in 1956, before graduating summa cum laude from Harvard Law in 1959. He was a law clerk to Justice Harold P. Williams of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a year before becoming an associate at the Boston Law firm Choate Hall & Stewart. After a year he left Boston to return to the Berkshires where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1961 he joined the firm of Cain, Lewis and Humphrey, and in 1963 became a partner at Cain, Hibbard and Myers. In 1984 he opened his solo practice where he continued practicing until his retirement at the age of 78.
Kim served on the board of numerous Berkshire County non-profits and arts organizations, donating countless hours of his legal skills, including the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, the Pittsfield YMCA, the Elizabeth Freeman Center (which assists and counsels victims of rape and domestic violence), the Audubon Society, the Family and Children Service of Berkshire County, the Berkshire branch of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Housatonic River Watershed Association, Shakespeare & Co., South Mountain Association and many others. He also served as a Selectman of the town of New Ashford for nine years.
Kim was an avid skier in his youth and well into middle age. He was captain of the Williams Swim Team and his passion for swimming continued throughout his life and he swam competitively at the master's level where he won several events when he was in his 60s. Kim had a wide variety of interests, including but not limited to, hiking, playing tennis, bird watching, reading poetry, and completing the New York Times crossword puzzle (in ink) before anyone else arose. He loved the Berkshires not only for their intrinsic beauty, but for the ready access to art museums, lectures, musical and theatrical performances, and he attended as many cultural events as he could.
His chief passion was gardening. He spent the majority of his free time digging in the dirt, pulling weeds, and planting vegetables, flowers and shrubs. Kim enjoyed nothing better than to spend the entire day in his garden, coming in at dusk covered from head to toe in the dirt he so loved.
In 1999 the Berkshire Natural Resources Council dedicated a trail on Yokum Ridge in his honor for the then "30 years of mostly anonymous but invaluable service" in ensuring the preservation of vast swatches of land throughout Berkshire County. Kim continued his work for BNRC until his passing. The past president of BRNC noted that the overwhelming portion of Kim's work for BNRC had been without charge, in keeping with his generous nature and dedication to land preservation.
1965
John B. Lidstone — engineer, General Electric Company, Plastics Division. Resigned and moved to the Troy, N.Y. area in 1970.
Robert Austin Acly — retired, U. S. State Dept. His posts included Burma and Panama, where he served as counselor of embassy and charge d'affaires, as well as Honduras, France and South Africa. He headed the Burma desk at the State Department in Washington and also served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations. Foreign Service postings: U.S. Vice Consul in Montreal, 1930; Tegucigalpa, 1930-35; Strasbourg, 1935; Johannesburg, 1938; U.S. Consul in Johannesburg, 1940-42; Cape Town, 1942-43; Rangoon, 1949. Born Feb. 25, 1906, died July 1, 1973.
1968
Robert M. Henderson — paper manufacturing executive, died October 16, 2017 (the morning of his 68th wedding anniversary).
Born in Livingston, Montana, October 16, 1923, and raised just over the mountains in Bozeman, Bob was a consummate cowboy. Raising and caring for horses in his early years gave him compassion for animals and a high regard for nature and all its wonders. Bob's father, Maurice's career in public service, ultimately retiring as city manager of Bozeman, MT and Colonel in the Montana National Guard as well as the example of his mother, Grace, a former school teacher and community volunteer, taught Bob the value of hard work and sound ethics. Throughout his life people turned to Bob for good advice and leadership. Bob attended Montana State College (now MSU). He paused his education during WWII for service in the Army Air Corps but returned to MSC to complete his engineering degree and as he would always be first to acknowledge, most fortunate to meet the young nursing student who would become the love of his life, Aleva Benjamin. Aleva ultimately attained a degree in dietetics and Bob in mechanical engineering. They married in Bozeman, MT, October 16, 1949.
Bob started his career at Westinghouse in Portland, OR, where four of his five children were born but moved to Massachusetts to work at Dalton's E.D. Jones Division of Beloit Corporation in large paper machinery sales and engineering. His success in sales could be attributed to his adeptness at listening and his ability to provide and execute solutions for his customers' needs. Their fifth child was born in Pittsfield.
Bob stayed in paper machinery sales and engineering with ED Jones/Beloit Corporation then went to Bielomatic, a German enterprise and finally, Clark Aiken, Lee, MA, where he bought the business which he eventually sold to a German concern. Bob never really retired, always dabbling in some project or another. He and Aleva lived on Main Street, Stockbridge and were active in the community for over 40 years.
Besides the Monday Evening Club, he was also a member of The Lenox Club, Monday Lunch Bunch, the Sweater Club and the Stockbridge Golf Club. He sang in the choir at the First Congregational Church of Stockbridge for many years serving as Moderator and supported its varied causes.
1969
William A. Selke — paper company chemist. Born in Newburgh, N.Y., June 16, 1922, died in Pittsfield, Mass., February 25, 2013. He received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the class of 1943. He entered the Naval Reserve, and served with a motor torpedo boat squadron in the Pacific theater. He returned to M.I.T.for a master's degree in 1947, and received a doctorate in engineering from Yale University in 1949. In 1952, he married Martha Whitney Floyd, a native of Pittsfield, then living in New York. Their weekend trips to the Berkshires introduced him to the many pleasures of the Berkshires, including skiing and Tanglewood. He joined the faculty of Columbia University, where his research and publications were in the fields of ion exchange kinetics, thermodynamics and heat transfer. In 1951 the U.S .Atomic Energy Commission established its Heat Transfer Research Facility at Columbia. After working for the DuPont Corporation on the design of the Savannah River reactors, Mr. Selke became the manager of that Columbia laboratory. In 1955, he moved to the Berkshires to establish a research and development department for Peter J. Schweitzer Inc. manufacturer of specialized technical papers. The laboratory was built at a mill site in Lee. The work that he did with his colleagues resulted in a number of U.S. and foreign patents on specialized papers, and novel applications of the papermaking process. The company was acquired by Kimberly-Clark Corp. in 1982, and was merged with other portions of the company. In 1982, Mr. Selke moved to Atlanta to be Vice president of the Corporate Science and Technology Group. He retired in 1986, and returned to Stockbridge. From 1986 through 1996, he was a consultant for several major companies, and served as a professor of environmental Engineering at The Lenox Institute for Research. He served as Chairman of a United States committee of the International Standards Organization, and represented that committee at meetings in Beijing and Berlin. He was a member of the board of investment of The City Savings Bank in Pittsfield. In 1966, Mr Selke became a member of the newly formed Massachusetts Board of Education. In retirement, he taught reading and English as a second language with the Southern Berkshire Literacy Network, and read science books for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic here in the Berkshires. Mr. Selke served the town of Stockbridge on a number of committees, including chairing an attempt to establish an historic district in Stock bridge Village. He was chairman of the committee on Affordable Housing, which promoted and helped develop the Pine Woods project in Stockbridge. He served on the Planning Board for eight years, and was chairman from 1976 through 1980. He was also a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. In 1993, he was elected to the Stockbridge Housing Authority, and was a member of the committee which formed the Berkshire Hills Regional School District., and built the Monument Mountain Regional High School. Twenty years later, after retirement, he became a substitute science teacher at that school. After serving as co-chairman of the Council of Tanglewood Friends in 1974, he became an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and from 1979 to 1985 served as a atrustee of the orchestra. In 1984, while living in Atlanta, he joined the board of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the boards of The Laurel Hill Association and The Berkshire Museum, and served as president of the Old Corner House-Stockbridge Historical Society, and the Stockbridge library Association. He was a member of the Western Regional Committee of The Trustees of Reservations, and on the Advisory Council of the statewide organization. He had a lifelong love of music, especially classical music and "good" jazz. He also loved sailing, and spent a lot of time on the water, both here and in far off lands. He loved traveling. He and his wife saw a good deal of the world together. [Berkshire Eagle obituary]
1970
George W. Low — actuary, Berkshire Life Insurance Company. He was born August 25, 1913 in Glasgow, Scotland, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh as an insurance actuary in 1934. He was associated with the Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society until 1958 and its assistant London secretary from 1946 to 1948. From 1949 to 1958 he was actuary and investment secretary to the Scottish Insurance Corporation in Edinburgh. He married Queenie F. Morton in 1940, and moved with her and their children to the United States in 1958. He served first as an associate actuary of the Mutual Service Insurance Company in St. Paul, and then in 1959 became associate actuary and assistant secretary of the Western Life Insurance Co., also in St. Paul. The family moved to Pittsfield in 1962 when he was appointed associate assistant actuary at Berkshire Life.
He joined the Rotary Club in Pittsfield in 1975 and served as bulletin editor, secretary, director and vice president before being elected president in 1985. He was also the third recipient of the club's annual award in memory of Donald G. Butler, former mayor of Pittsfield. He was a member of the Friends of Hancock Shaker Village, and from 1977 until 1989, treasurer of the board of trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum. A member of the First Church of Christ, Congregational, he served as its assistant treasurer, treasurer, and finally financial secretary. He was an occasional contributor of columns to The Berkshire Eagle. In early 1989 he moved to Corvallis, Oregon, where his son David Low resided, and died there on July 18, 1989.
Rev. Arthur L. Teikmanis — minister, First Church of Christ in Pittsfield. Born in Ranka, Latvia, April 8, 1914, son of Roberts and Marija Apsha Teikmanis. He was educated in both Latvia and the United States, and ordained into the ministry in 1941. He received a doctorate from Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1953, and a B.D. degree from Andover-Newton Theological Seminary in 1949. From 1941 to 1944, he was minister of the First Baptist Church in Priekule, Latvia. Thereafter he served the Refugee Church in Augsberg, Germany (1945-1946); the Community Congregational Church, West Peabody, Massachusetts (1950-1952); the Highland Congregational Church, Lowell, Massachusetts (1952-1957); the Sayville Congregational Church, Sayville, New York (1956-1961); First Congregational Church, Winter Park, Florida (1961-1967); First Community Church, Columbus, Ohio (1967-1969); and First Church of Christ in Pittsfield (1969-1980?). He served in the Latvian Army as a telegraphist, being honorably discharged as a corporal in 1936. During the Russian occupation of Latvia he served as a superintendent of government buildings in Riga. (Resigned 1980?)
R. Michael McNaught — headmaster, Berkshire Country Day School. Originally from England, McNaught attended Trinity College
at Oxford, receiving an undergraduate degree in history.
He then did his post-graduate study at Oxford University
in the education department. In 1961 he came to the US to teach. In 1968,
he became the Headmaster of the Berkshire Country
Day School. In 1976, he became the new upper
school Headmaster of the New Canaan Country School in Connecticut.
After 20 years there, he stepped down to become the Dean of
Faculty and Math Department Chairman of the upper
school. He retired in 2004 and moved to Falmouth, Mass., where served on the board of the Oyster Pond Environmental Trust board. He was also Vice-chairman of the Berkshire Choral Festival, and a US Civil War authority
and a genealogy expert. (Resigned 1976)
Douglas McGregor — retired, General Electric Company. A resident of Stockbridge, he created the well-known line-drawing of the Red Lion Inn, with the help of Norman Rockwell. His former home is now a part of the Red Lion Inn's accommodations. Born June 27, 1901; died September 1977.
1973
Albert Easton — actuary, Berkshire Life Insurance Company
1974
Arthur Waring "Skip" Paddock — teacher, Pittsfield High School. Born in Orange, N.J., on Aug. 7, 1926, son of Arthur H. and Helen Rochelle Paddock, he graduated from Colgate University in 1946 and his master's degree in education in 1965 from Springfield College. He died June 26, 2006. He served in the Navy as a V12 candidate. He taught English at Pittsfield High School from 1966 to 1996. (Resigned, date unknown)
1980
Ronald A. Trabulsi — real estate investor, born 1932. (Resigned 2016) Ron died July 26, 2018 at Kimball Farms Nursing Home in Lenox after a fall.
He was a gentle man and a gentleman. Ron was best known in the community for easily making trifle for 300, as well as endless quantities of demi-glace that he kept in his freezer to whip up sauces for weeknight sautes.
He was drafted 2 days before his 26th birthday and claimed that he fulfilled his duty baking cookies in the Natick Quartermaster Test Kitchens. He and his wife, Ann, moved to Pittsfield in 1966. In 2015, they moved to Kimball Farms Retirement Community where he enjoyed making new friends, keeping up with old ones, socializing, and dining out.
Ron built, owned, and ran Pittsfield Bus and Travel for over 30 years while also pursuing a successful career in real estate where many of his tenants became long time friends. His true loves, besides his family, were, unsurprisingly, cooking, and gardening. He was alternately known as the Plant Dude or the Plant Doctor. His happiest times were when the house was full of guests enjoying his latest culinary adventure. During his 50 years of community involvement, Ron volunteered for the Pittsfield Housing Authority, was president of Pittsfield Rotary, and oversaw the greenhouses at Soldier On and Pittsfield High School.
1983
Rev. Richard L. Floyd — Pastor Emeritus of the First Church of Christ in Pittsfield, Congregational (UCC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Previously he had two pastorates in Maine and was Chaplain at the Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine. Floyd holds a B.A. from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1971), a M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological School (1975) and a D.Min. from Bangor Theological Seminary in Hanover, New Hampshire (1994). During sabbaticals he has done post-graduate study in Britain at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and St. Andrews.
He was selected to be a member of the Pastor-Theologian program at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton from 1999 to 2001. He has lectured widely on the Christian understanding of the atonement both in the United States and Britain. He is the author of A Course in Basic Christianity (Birch Hill Press, 1997) and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Reflections on the Atonement (Pickwick Press, 2000, Wipf and Stock, 2010). His articles, book reviews and sermons have appeared in a number of anthologies, periodicals and journals. (Full list of publications)
He is a writer of hymn texts, many of which have been set to original music and sung in churches. He has been an occasional contributor of book reviews and op-ed articles for The Berkshire Eagle. He has been an active participant in the theological renewal movement in the United Church of Christ, was on the drafting committee of the first Craigville Colloquy, and is a founder and member of the convening committee of “Confessing Christ.” He served as president of the Pittsfield Area Council of Churches and the Central Berkshire Clergy Association. He represented the Massachusetts Conference of the U.C.C. on the Massachusetts Commission on Christian Unity from 1984 until 1996. In 1989 he was an official ecumenical observer of the United Church of Christ to the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church in Great Britain. He was a convener for the Lutheran–Reformed dialogue in the mid 1980's. He was a theological consultant to the Ecclesiology Subcommittee of the General Synod Committee on Structure of the United Church of Christ. He was moderator of the Berkshire Association of the United Church of Christ, and a delegate to the General Synod of the United Church of Christ
In the Berkshires, he was a member of the Patient Ethics Committee at the Berkshire Medical Center, and a member of the Human Rights Committee of the former Berkshire Mental Health and the Psychiatric Unit at Berkshire Medical Center. He helped found the chapel at Berkshire Medical Center and was chairman of the pastoral care department when it was approved as a Clinical Pastoral Education site. He was chaplain to the Berkshire Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and preached the opening sermon at the 1997 New England Regional Convocation of the AGO in Pittsfield.
In 2004 he stepped down from his pastorate of 22 years because of disability from traumatic brain injury as the result of a bicycle accident. Since that time his ministry has been chiefly as a writer and blogger. In 2010 his popular blog “Retired Pastor Ruminates” (now renamed “When I Survey . . .”) was one of the 50 top theological blogs on Facebook’s Networked Blogs. He is a contributor to the United Church of Christ’s StillSpeaking Daily Devotional, an e-mail service with 30,000 subscribers. He also contributes to the UCC's versions of Advent and Lenten Devotionals.
Dr. Thomas Spurr Morse — pediatric surgeon, Lenox. Died August 26, 2012 the age of 87. He was raised on Green Meads Farm in Richmond, Mass., the son of Darwin and Kate Morse. He ttended The Eaglebrook School, where he served as trustee for many years, and Deerfield Academy. He served in the U. S. Marines and planned to return and study agriculture. His experiences in the Marines set him on a different course and he went on to medical school at Cornell University. He rained at Bellevue Hospital, New York City in pediatrics, and then moved to Boston, MA where he decided to train in pediatric surgery. He then took a job at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio where he spent most of the rest of his career. He was very interested in trauma, running the Emergency Room, training pediatricians in emergency care and working on the delivery of emergent care both at the hospital and with the City of Columbus. He was the author of over 60 articles on various topics in pediatric medicine and surgery, and was a founding member and President of the American Trauma Society. He was a member of numerous other medical and surgical societies as well. He was the author of "A Gift of Courage" (Doubleday, 1982). Berkshire Eagle obituary, Oct. 12, 2012.
1986
Dr. David T. Noyes — urologist (resigned 2019)
John M. Fuchs — librarian, Berkshire Athenaeum. Later director of the library of Burbank, California (resigned 1995)
1989
Richard Whitlock Nunley — poet, writer, professor at Berkshire Community College. Richard Whitlock Nunley, born July 31, 1931, in Scituate, Massachusetts, died from a brain hemorrhage on March 3, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. Dick was a teacher, poet, cook, gardener, and lover of the natural world. Childhood mentors fostered a love of books and learning, which led him to Dartmouth College and Kings College, Cambridge in England. There he met Susan Stroud, whom he married on December 19, 1965. They spent the majority of their lives together in New Lebanon, New York, where Dick was a teacher at Darrow School. They raised two daughters, Diana and Felicity, at their "Garden Hill" home, surrounded by flower and vegetable gardens with a spectacular view across Lebanon Valley.
In 1970 Dick became a professor of English at Berkshire Community College in nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts. An exacting teacher with high expectations for all, many former students credit him with changing the course of their lives. For 25 years beginning in 1980 Dick wrote a weekly "Our Berkshires" column for The Berkshire Eagle. His columns challenged readers to connect the dots between vignettes of Berkshire life and his favorite poets and thinkers, and revealed the thoughtful, caring and generous man that he was. For the last 12 years of his life, Dick and Sue lived near Felicity in Portland, Oregon, where he turned his eye on the lush environment of the Pacific Northwest and enjoyed the city's art and musical offerings. He delighted in his grandchildren, Helen and Norris Meigs of Portland and Hanna and Elena Johnson of Minneapolis. "How simple happiness is, really," concludes one of Dick's poems. That lesson may be Dick's greatest legacy to all who remember him whether it's to be found in a delicate spring bloom, a morning walk, or a fresh-baked loaf of bread. (Dick resigned from the Club upon moving to Portland in about 2003.)
Charles F. Sawyer — attorney, real estate professional
1990
John H. Spencer — teacher, principal. Born September 15, 1936 to John Haines Spencer and Pauline Simmons Spencer, Jack was raised in Adams, Massachusetts. After graduating from Williston Prep School and Amherst College, he received a Masters in Education from Purdue University. While teaching at Williams High School in Stockbridge, he had the good fortune to meet and fall in love with Social Studies teacher Judith Leahey. On February 20, 1965, he had the good sense to marry her and continue a love affair that spanned more than fifty years.
Mr. Spencer was an educator for 47 years. He taught Social Studies at Williams High School and Monument Mountain Regional High School and was Principal of Searles Middle School. He encouraged students to be conscious seekers and doers, to be disturbers of the universe. He was chair of the Monument Social Studies department from its inception in 1967. The department created the first Holocaust curriculum for high school students in the country. Jack and Roselle Chartock coedited the anthology that came out of that curriculum.
Jack had a love of Stockbridge and its citizens, community activism and participation in government. He served on numerous committees and boards, including the Stockbridge Planning Board (chairman) and Zone of Appeals, The Stockbridge Library (president and member of the Board of Trustees), The Fund for Excellence and School Center, Inc. He was instrumental in writing the zoning bylaws for Stockbridge.
Jack died on Sunday, February 19, 2017 in Stockbridge.
Peter C. Webber — bartender at the Red Lion Inn, Massachusetts state senator (1981-1991); Massachusetts commissioner of environmental management (1991-2004) (resigned 1991)
Ronald B. Latham — librarian, Berkshire Athenaeum. (Resigned about 1999.)
1997
Dr. Michael A. Shirley — anesthesiologist (resigned 2017)
Lawrence J. Yerdon — executive director, Hancock Shaker Village; later of Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth N.H. (resigned 2004)
2000
Martin C. Langeveld — newspaper executive. Graduated with an MA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970) and an Master of Professional Studies degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University (1975). Innkeeper, The Flying Cloud Inn, New Marlboro, Massachusetts, (1975-1978). Marketing director, general manager of Eagle Publishing Company (1979-1995), publisher of The Berkshire Eagle (1995-2000); North Adams Transcript (2000-2006); Brattleboro (Vermont) Reformer (2006-2008); independent marketing consultant and newspaper industry analyst, 2008-present. He served twice as chair and once as treasurer of Hancock Shaker Village. Founding trustee of the Colonial Theatre Association, director of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, and director and treasurer of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. In Vermont, he serves on the boards of SeVEDS (Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies), the Windham-Windsor Housing Trust, Brattleboro Community Television, the Resilient Design Institute, and on the Vernon Planning Commission.
2002
Erik Bruun — journalist, investment manager
Craig F. Smith — nonprofit fundraising manager (resigned 2019)
2005
Stuart Chase — executive director, Berkshire Museum (resigned 2012)
William J. Bartz — engineer, Crane & Company (resigned, 2015)
2006
Brad Spear — radio personality, marketing executive (resigned 2011, returned to membership 2018)
2009
Rev. Robert G. Anderson —certified hospital chaplain supervisor and ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America (resigned 2013)
2011
Rev. James Lumsden — minister, First Church of Christ in Pittsfield (resigned 2016)
Ethan J. Berg — management consultant, investment manager, owner/manager of The Lenox Athenaeum and The Winthrop Estate
2014
Rabbi Joshua Breindel — Temple Anshe Amunim (resigned 2017)
2016
William P. Densmore — Bill Densmore is executive director of the Information Trust Exchange Governing Association. He is a Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) fellow and author of its white paper, “From Persona to Payment: A Status Report on the News Ecosystem, and a Challenge to Create the Next One.” (2015).
A career journalist, publisher and tech entrepreneur, Densmore has been an editor/writer for The Associated Press in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco and for trade publications in business, law, insurance and information-technology in Boston, Chicago and New York. He co-owned and published The Advocate newsweeklies for the Berkshires/southwestern Vermont, from 1983-1992. Densmore founded Amherst, Mass.-based Clickshare Service Corp., which provides user registration, authentication, content access control and transaction services to Internet web content sites and publishers. He is co-founder of Taxonometrics Inc., a New York-based company incubating a news- and information-personalization service called LifeStream®.
He’s a founding member and director of Journalism That Matters and also served eight years on the board of the New England Newspaper & Press Association and four years on the board of Shires Media Partnership, Inc. Densmore also served as director/editor of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst from 2005-2008. It was an effort to find and spotlight individuals making sustainable, innovative use of media (old and new) to foster participatory democracy and community. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of The Berkshire Eagle. Densmore holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in environmental policy and communications.
Richard Felver — librarian, Berkshire Community College (resigned 2018)
2018
Laurie Norton Moffatt — Laurie Norton Moffatt is the director and CEO of Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. A leading scholar of American illustration art, she authored the Norman Rockwell catalogue raisonné and led the growth of the museum from a small house in the artist’s hometown to be a global leader in illustration art exhibitions, scholarship and digital collections connectivity. She founded the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, the nation’s first research institute in American illustration art, which is a hub of illustration art collections, museums, libraries, universities, scholars, curators and professors across the country.
In recognition of the Museum’s national service, President George W. Bush bestowed the National Humanities Medal to the Museum and President Barack Obama invited her to the White House with Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. She was a cultural specialist to Ethiopia and Russia with the US State Department and brought Norman Rockwell’s art to the United Nations. A national arts leader, she has served on the boards of the American Alliance of Museums and Association of Art Museum Directors, and delegate with National Arts Strategy. She has served on numerous not-for-profit boards in the Berkshires, and currently serves on the boards of Berkshire Bank, Berkshire Health Systems and Connecticut College. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in art history from Connecticut College and her MBA from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management.
2019
Lucy Prashker — attorney, Cain Hibbard & Myers, Great Barrington
2020
Ellen Spear — Chief Philanthropy Officer, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
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1964
Charles F. B. Richardson — senior vice-president, Berkshire Life Insurance Company. He came to Berkshire Life in 1960 as head of the insurance finance division, after having served as associate actuary of Mutual Life of New York. He was born in Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He began is career with the Scottish Life Assurance Company in Edinburgh. In 1931 he joined an insurance company in Canada, and in 1938 moved to the United States. He was, in 1960, a fellow of the Society of Actuaries, and an associate of the British Institute of Actuaries. In 1963 he was named a senior vice president at Berkshire Life with responsibilities including actuarial, health insurance, underwriting, electronic data processing and accounting operations, and all phases of product development and research. He retired from Berkshire Life in October, 1969, and joined the consulting firm of Bowles, Andrews & Towne in Atlanta, Georgia. He died in 1991.
Kelton Miller Burbank ("Kim") — attorney in Pittsfield. Born 1935(?); died June 29th, 2015. He was a graduate of the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and received his Bachelor of Arts from Williams College in 1956, before graduating summa cum laude from Harvard Law in 1959. He was a law clerk to Justice Harold P. Williams of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a year before becoming an associate at the Boston Law firm Choate Hall & Stewart. After a year he left Boston to return to the Berkshires where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1961 he joined the firm of Cain, Lewis and Humphrey, and in 1963 became a partner at Cain, Hibbard and Myers. In 1984 he opened his solo practice where he continued practicing until his retirement at the age of 78.
Kim served on the board of numerous Berkshire County non-profits and arts organizations, donating countless hours of his legal skills, including the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, the Pittsfield YMCA, the Elizabeth Freeman Center (which assists and counsels victims of rape and domestic violence), the Audubon Society, the Family and Children Service of Berkshire County, the Berkshire branch of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Housatonic River Watershed Association, Shakespeare & Co., South Mountain Association and many others. He also served as a Selectman of the town of New Ashford for nine years.
Kim was an avid skier in his youth and well into middle age. He was captain of the Williams Swim Team and his passion for swimming continued throughout his life and he swam competitively at the master's level where he won several events when he was in his 60s. Kim had a wide variety of interests, including but not limited to, hiking, playing tennis, bird watching, reading poetry, and completing the New York Times crossword puzzle (in ink) before anyone else arose. He loved the Berkshires not only for their intrinsic beauty, but for the ready access to art museums, lectures, musical and theatrical performances, and he attended as many cultural events as he could.
His chief passion was gardening. He spent the majority of his free time digging in the dirt, pulling weeds, and planting vegetables, flowers and shrubs. Kim enjoyed nothing better than to spend the entire day in his garden, coming in at dusk covered from head to toe in the dirt he so loved.
In 1999 the Berkshire Natural Resources Council dedicated a trail on Yokum Ridge in his honor for the then "30 years of mostly anonymous but invaluable service" in ensuring the preservation of vast swatches of land throughout Berkshire County. Kim continued his work for BNRC until his passing. The past president of BRNC noted that the overwhelming portion of Kim's work for BNRC had been without charge, in keeping with his generous nature and dedication to land preservation.
1965
John B. Lidstone — engineer, General Electric Company, Plastics Division. Resigned and moved to the Troy, N.Y. area in 1970.
Robert Austin Acly — retired, U. S. State Dept. His posts included Burma and Panama, where he served as counselor of embassy and charge d'affaires, as well as Honduras, France and South Africa. He headed the Burma desk at the State Department in Washington and also served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations. Foreign Service postings: U.S. Vice Consul in Montreal, 1930; Tegucigalpa, 1930-35; Strasbourg, 1935; Johannesburg, 1938; U.S. Consul in Johannesburg, 1940-42; Cape Town, 1942-43; Rangoon, 1949. Born Feb. 25, 1906, died July 1, 1973.
1968
Robert M. Henderson — paper manufacturing executive, died October 16, 2017 (the morning of his 68th wedding anniversary).
Born in Livingston, Montana, October 16, 1923, and raised just over the mountains in Bozeman, Bob was a consummate cowboy. Raising and caring for horses in his early years gave him compassion for animals and a high regard for nature and all its wonders. Bob's father, Maurice's career in public service, ultimately retiring as city manager of Bozeman, MT and Colonel in the Montana National Guard as well as the example of his mother, Grace, a former school teacher and community volunteer, taught Bob the value of hard work and sound ethics. Throughout his life people turned to Bob for good advice and leadership. Bob attended Montana State College (now MSU). He paused his education during WWII for service in the Army Air Corps but returned to MSC to complete his engineering degree and as he would always be first to acknowledge, most fortunate to meet the young nursing student who would become the love of his life, Aleva Benjamin. Aleva ultimately attained a degree in dietetics and Bob in mechanical engineering. They married in Bozeman, MT, October 16, 1949.
Bob started his career at Westinghouse in Portland, OR, where four of his five children were born but moved to Massachusetts to work at Dalton's E.D. Jones Division of Beloit Corporation in large paper machinery sales and engineering. His success in sales could be attributed to his adeptness at listening and his ability to provide and execute solutions for his customers' needs. Their fifth child was born in Pittsfield.
Bob stayed in paper machinery sales and engineering with ED Jones/Beloit Corporation then went to Bielomatic, a German enterprise and finally, Clark Aiken, Lee, MA, where he bought the business which he eventually sold to a German concern. Bob never really retired, always dabbling in some project or another. He and Aleva lived on Main Street, Stockbridge and were active in the community for over 40 years.
Besides the Monday Evening Club, he was also a member of The Lenox Club, Monday Lunch Bunch, the Sweater Club and the Stockbridge Golf Club. He sang in the choir at the First Congregational Church of Stockbridge for many years serving as Moderator and supported its varied causes.
1969
William A. Selke — paper company chemist. Born in Newburgh, N.Y., June 16, 1922, died in Pittsfield, Mass., February 25, 2013. He received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the class of 1943. He entered the Naval Reserve, and served with a motor torpedo boat squadron in the Pacific theater. He returned to M.I.T.for a master's degree in 1947, and received a doctorate in engineering from Yale University in 1949. In 1952, he married Martha Whitney Floyd, a native of Pittsfield, then living in New York. Their weekend trips to the Berkshires introduced him to the many pleasures of the Berkshires, including skiing and Tanglewood. He joined the faculty of Columbia University, where his research and publications were in the fields of ion exchange kinetics, thermodynamics and heat transfer. In 1951 the U.S .Atomic Energy Commission established its Heat Transfer Research Facility at Columbia. After working for the DuPont Corporation on the design of the Savannah River reactors, Mr. Selke became the manager of that Columbia laboratory. In 1955, he moved to the Berkshires to establish a research and development department for Peter J. Schweitzer Inc. manufacturer of specialized technical papers. The laboratory was built at a mill site in Lee. The work that he did with his colleagues resulted in a number of U.S. and foreign patents on specialized papers, and novel applications of the papermaking process. The company was acquired by Kimberly-Clark Corp. in 1982, and was merged with other portions of the company. In 1982, Mr. Selke moved to Atlanta to be Vice president of the Corporate Science and Technology Group. He retired in 1986, and returned to Stockbridge. From 1986 through 1996, he was a consultant for several major companies, and served as a professor of environmental Engineering at The Lenox Institute for Research. He served as Chairman of a United States committee of the International Standards Organization, and represented that committee at meetings in Beijing and Berlin. He was a member of the board of investment of The City Savings Bank in Pittsfield. In 1966, Mr Selke became a member of the newly formed Massachusetts Board of Education. In retirement, he taught reading and English as a second language with the Southern Berkshire Literacy Network, and read science books for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic here in the Berkshires. Mr. Selke served the town of Stockbridge on a number of committees, including chairing an attempt to establish an historic district in Stock bridge Village. He was chairman of the committee on Affordable Housing, which promoted and helped develop the Pine Woods project in Stockbridge. He served on the Planning Board for eight years, and was chairman from 1976 through 1980. He was also a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. In 1993, he was elected to the Stockbridge Housing Authority, and was a member of the committee which formed the Berkshire Hills Regional School District., and built the Monument Mountain Regional High School. Twenty years later, after retirement, he became a substitute science teacher at that school. After serving as co-chairman of the Council of Tanglewood Friends in 1974, he became an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and from 1979 to 1985 served as a atrustee of the orchestra. In 1984, while living in Atlanta, he joined the board of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the boards of The Laurel Hill Association and The Berkshire Museum, and served as president of the Old Corner House-Stockbridge Historical Society, and the Stockbridge library Association. He was a member of the Western Regional Committee of The Trustees of Reservations, and on the Advisory Council of the statewide organization. He had a lifelong love of music, especially classical music and "good" jazz. He also loved sailing, and spent a lot of time on the water, both here and in far off lands. He loved traveling. He and his wife saw a good deal of the world together. [Berkshire Eagle obituary]
1970
George W. Low — actuary, Berkshire Life Insurance Company. He was born August 25, 1913 in Glasgow, Scotland, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh as an insurance actuary in 1934. He was associated with the Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society until 1958 and its assistant London secretary from 1946 to 1948. From 1949 to 1958 he was actuary and investment secretary to the Scottish Insurance Corporation in Edinburgh. He married Queenie F. Morton in 1940, and moved with her and their children to the United States in 1958. He served first as an associate actuary of the Mutual Service Insurance Company in St. Paul, and then in 1959 became associate actuary and assistant secretary of the Western Life Insurance Co., also in St. Paul. The family moved to Pittsfield in 1962 when he was appointed associate assistant actuary at Berkshire Life.
He joined the Rotary Club in Pittsfield in 1975 and served as bulletin editor, secretary, director and vice president before being elected president in 1985. He was also the third recipient of the club's annual award in memory of Donald G. Butler, former mayor of Pittsfield. He was a member of the Friends of Hancock Shaker Village, and from 1977 until 1989, treasurer of the board of trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum. A member of the First Church of Christ, Congregational, he served as its assistant treasurer, treasurer, and finally financial secretary. He was an occasional contributor of columns to The Berkshire Eagle. In early 1989 he moved to Corvallis, Oregon, where his son David Low resided, and died there on July 18, 1989.
Rev. Arthur L. Teikmanis — minister, First Church of Christ in Pittsfield. Born in Ranka, Latvia, April 8, 1914, son of Roberts and Marija Apsha Teikmanis. He was educated in both Latvia and the United States, and ordained into the ministry in 1941. He received a doctorate from Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1953, and a B.D. degree from Andover-Newton Theological Seminary in 1949. From 1941 to 1944, he was minister of the First Baptist Church in Priekule, Latvia. Thereafter he served the Refugee Church in Augsberg, Germany (1945-1946); the Community Congregational Church, West Peabody, Massachusetts (1950-1952); the Highland Congregational Church, Lowell, Massachusetts (1952-1957); the Sayville Congregational Church, Sayville, New York (1956-1961); First Congregational Church, Winter Park, Florida (1961-1967); First Community Church, Columbus, Ohio (1967-1969); and First Church of Christ in Pittsfield (1969-1980?). He served in the Latvian Army as a telegraphist, being honorably discharged as a corporal in 1936. During the Russian occupation of Latvia he served as a superintendent of government buildings in Riga. (Resigned 1980?)
R. Michael McNaught — headmaster, Berkshire Country Day School. Originally from England, McNaught attended Trinity College
at Oxford, receiving an undergraduate degree in history.
He then did his post-graduate study at Oxford University
in the education department. In 1961 he came to the US to teach. In 1968,
he became the Headmaster of the Berkshire Country
Day School. In 1976, he became the new upper
school Headmaster of the New Canaan Country School in Connecticut.
After 20 years there, he stepped down to become the Dean of
Faculty and Math Department Chairman of the upper
school. He retired in 2004 and moved to Falmouth, Mass., where served on the board of the Oyster Pond Environmental Trust board. He was also Vice-chairman of the Berkshire Choral Festival, and a US Civil War authority
and a genealogy expert. (Resigned 1976)
 |
| Drawing by Douglas McGregor — People by Norman Rockwell |
Douglas McGregor — retired, General Electric Company. A resident of Stockbridge, he created the well-known line-drawing of the Red Lion Inn, with the help of Norman Rockwell. His former home is now a part of the Red Lion Inn's accommodations. Born June 27, 1901; died September 1977.
1973
Albert Easton — actuary, Berkshire Life Insurance Company
1974
Arthur Waring "Skip" Paddock — teacher, Pittsfield High School. Born in Orange, N.J., on Aug. 7, 1926, son of Arthur H. and Helen Rochelle Paddock, he graduated from Colgate University in 1946 and his master's degree in education in 1965 from Springfield College. He died June 26, 2006. He served in the Navy as a V12 candidate. He taught English at Pittsfield High School from 1966 to 1996. (Resigned, date unknown)
1980
Ronald A. Trabulsi — real estate investor, born 1932. (Resigned 2016) Ron died July 26, 2018 at Kimball Farms Nursing Home in Lenox after a fall.
He was a gentle man and a gentleman. Ron was best known in the community for easily making trifle for 300, as well as endless quantities of demi-glace that he kept in his freezer to whip up sauces for weeknight sautes.
He was drafted 2 days before his 26th birthday and claimed that he fulfilled his duty baking cookies in the Natick Quartermaster Test Kitchens. He and his wife, Ann, moved to Pittsfield in 1966. In 2015, they moved to Kimball Farms Retirement Community where he enjoyed making new friends, keeping up with old ones, socializing, and dining out.
Ron built, owned, and ran Pittsfield Bus and Travel for over 30 years while also pursuing a successful career in real estate where many of his tenants became long time friends. His true loves, besides his family, were, unsurprisingly, cooking, and gardening. He was alternately known as the Plant Dude or the Plant Doctor. His happiest times were when the house was full of guests enjoying his latest culinary adventure. During his 50 years of community involvement, Ron volunteered for the Pittsfield Housing Authority, was president of Pittsfield Rotary, and oversaw the greenhouses at Soldier On and Pittsfield High School.
1983
Rev. Richard L. Floyd — Pastor Emeritus of the First Church of Christ in Pittsfield, Congregational (UCC) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Previously he had two pastorates in Maine and was Chaplain at the Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine. Floyd holds a B.A. from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1971), a M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological School (1975) and a D.Min. from Bangor Theological Seminary in Hanover, New Hampshire (1994). During sabbaticals he has done post-graduate study in Britain at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and St. Andrews.
He was selected to be a member of the Pastor-Theologian program at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton from 1999 to 2001. He has lectured widely on the Christian understanding of the atonement both in the United States and Britain. He is the author of A Course in Basic Christianity (Birch Hill Press, 1997) and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Reflections on the Atonement (Pickwick Press, 2000, Wipf and Stock, 2010). His articles, book reviews and sermons have appeared in a number of anthologies, periodicals and journals. (Full list of publications)
He is a writer of hymn texts, many of which have been set to original music and sung in churches. He has been an occasional contributor of book reviews and op-ed articles for The Berkshire Eagle. He has been an active participant in the theological renewal movement in the United Church of Christ, was on the drafting committee of the first Craigville Colloquy, and is a founder and member of the convening committee of “Confessing Christ.” He served as president of the Pittsfield Area Council of Churches and the Central Berkshire Clergy Association. He represented the Massachusetts Conference of the U.C.C. on the Massachusetts Commission on Christian Unity from 1984 until 1996. In 1989 he was an official ecumenical observer of the United Church of Christ to the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church in Great Britain. He was a convener for the Lutheran–Reformed dialogue in the mid 1980's. He was a theological consultant to the Ecclesiology Subcommittee of the General Synod Committee on Structure of the United Church of Christ. He was moderator of the Berkshire Association of the United Church of Christ, and a delegate to the General Synod of the United Church of Christ
In the Berkshires, he was a member of the Patient Ethics Committee at the Berkshire Medical Center, and a member of the Human Rights Committee of the former Berkshire Mental Health and the Psychiatric Unit at Berkshire Medical Center. He helped found the chapel at Berkshire Medical Center and was chairman of the pastoral care department when it was approved as a Clinical Pastoral Education site. He was chaplain to the Berkshire Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and preached the opening sermon at the 1997 New England Regional Convocation of the AGO in Pittsfield.
In 2004 he stepped down from his pastorate of 22 years because of disability from traumatic brain injury as the result of a bicycle accident. Since that time his ministry has been chiefly as a writer and blogger. In 2010 his popular blog “Retired Pastor Ruminates” (now renamed “When I Survey . . .”) was one of the 50 top theological blogs on Facebook’s Networked Blogs. He is a contributor to the United Church of Christ’s StillSpeaking Daily Devotional, an e-mail service with 30,000 subscribers. He also contributes to the UCC's versions of Advent and Lenten Devotionals.
Dr. Thomas Spurr Morse — pediatric surgeon, Lenox. Died August 26, 2012 the age of 87. He was raised on Green Meads Farm in Richmond, Mass., the son of Darwin and Kate Morse. He ttended The Eaglebrook School, where he served as trustee for many years, and Deerfield Academy. He served in the U. S. Marines and planned to return and study agriculture. His experiences in the Marines set him on a different course and he went on to medical school at Cornell University. He rained at Bellevue Hospital, New York City in pediatrics, and then moved to Boston, MA where he decided to train in pediatric surgery. He then took a job at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio where he spent most of the rest of his career. He was very interested in trauma, running the Emergency Room, training pediatricians in emergency care and working on the delivery of emergent care both at the hospital and with the City of Columbus. He was the author of over 60 articles on various topics in pediatric medicine and surgery, and was a founding member and President of the American Trauma Society. He was a member of numerous other medical and surgical societies as well. He was the author of "A Gift of Courage" (Doubleday, 1982). Berkshire Eagle obituary, Oct. 12, 2012.
1986
Dr. David T. Noyes — urologist (resigned 2019)
John M. Fuchs — librarian, Berkshire Athenaeum. Later director of the library of Burbank, California (resigned 1995)
1989
Richard Whitlock Nunley — poet, writer, professor at Berkshire Community College. Richard Whitlock Nunley, born July 31, 1931, in Scituate, Massachusetts, died from a brain hemorrhage on March 3, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. Dick was a teacher, poet, cook, gardener, and lover of the natural world. Childhood mentors fostered a love of books and learning, which led him to Dartmouth College and Kings College, Cambridge in England. There he met Susan Stroud, whom he married on December 19, 1965. They spent the majority of their lives together in New Lebanon, New York, where Dick was a teacher at Darrow School. They raised two daughters, Diana and Felicity, at their "Garden Hill" home, surrounded by flower and vegetable gardens with a spectacular view across Lebanon Valley.
In 1970 Dick became a professor of English at Berkshire Community College in nearby Pittsfield, Massachusetts. An exacting teacher with high expectations for all, many former students credit him with changing the course of their lives. For 25 years beginning in 1980 Dick wrote a weekly "Our Berkshires" column for The Berkshire Eagle. His columns challenged readers to connect the dots between vignettes of Berkshire life and his favorite poets and thinkers, and revealed the thoughtful, caring and generous man that he was. For the last 12 years of his life, Dick and Sue lived near Felicity in Portland, Oregon, where he turned his eye on the lush environment of the Pacific Northwest and enjoyed the city's art and musical offerings. He delighted in his grandchildren, Helen and Norris Meigs of Portland and Hanna and Elena Johnson of Minneapolis. "How simple happiness is, really," concludes one of Dick's poems. That lesson may be Dick's greatest legacy to all who remember him whether it's to be found in a delicate spring bloom, a morning walk, or a fresh-baked loaf of bread. (Dick resigned from the Club upon moving to Portland in about 2003.)
Charles F. Sawyer — attorney, real estate professional
1990
John H. Spencer — teacher, principal. Born September 15, 1936 to John Haines Spencer and Pauline Simmons Spencer, Jack was raised in Adams, Massachusetts. After graduating from Williston Prep School and Amherst College, he received a Masters in Education from Purdue University. While teaching at Williams High School in Stockbridge, he had the good fortune to meet and fall in love with Social Studies teacher Judith Leahey. On February 20, 1965, he had the good sense to marry her and continue a love affair that spanned more than fifty years.
Mr. Spencer was an educator for 47 years. He taught Social Studies at Williams High School and Monument Mountain Regional High School and was Principal of Searles Middle School. He encouraged students to be conscious seekers and doers, to be disturbers of the universe. He was chair of the Monument Social Studies department from its inception in 1967. The department created the first Holocaust curriculum for high school students in the country. Jack and Roselle Chartock coedited the anthology that came out of that curriculum.
Jack had a love of Stockbridge and its citizens, community activism and participation in government. He served on numerous committees and boards, including the Stockbridge Planning Board (chairman) and Zone of Appeals, The Stockbridge Library (president and member of the Board of Trustees), The Fund for Excellence and School Center, Inc. He was instrumental in writing the zoning bylaws for Stockbridge.
Jack died on Sunday, February 19, 2017 in Stockbridge.
Peter C. Webber — bartender at the Red Lion Inn, Massachusetts state senator (1981-1991); Massachusetts commissioner of environmental management (1991-2004) (resigned 1991)
Ronald B. Latham — librarian, Berkshire Athenaeum. (Resigned about 1999.)
1997
Dr. Michael A. Shirley — anesthesiologist (resigned 2017)
Lawrence J. Yerdon — executive director, Hancock Shaker Village; later of Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth N.H. (resigned 2004)
2000
Martin C. Langeveld — newspaper executive. Graduated with an MA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970) and an Master of Professional Studies degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University (1975). Innkeeper, The Flying Cloud Inn, New Marlboro, Massachusetts, (1975-1978). Marketing director, general manager of Eagle Publishing Company (1979-1995), publisher of The Berkshire Eagle (1995-2000); North Adams Transcript (2000-2006); Brattleboro (Vermont) Reformer (2006-2008); independent marketing consultant and newspaper industry analyst, 2008-present. He served twice as chair and once as treasurer of Hancock Shaker Village. Founding trustee of the Colonial Theatre Association, director of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, and director and treasurer of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. In Vermont, he serves on the boards of SeVEDS (Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies), the Windham-Windsor Housing Trust, Brattleboro Community Television, the Resilient Design Institute, and on the Vernon Planning Commission.
2002
Erik Bruun — journalist, investment manager
Craig F. Smith — nonprofit fundraising manager (resigned 2019)
2005
Stuart Chase — executive director, Berkshire Museum (resigned 2012)
William J. Bartz — engineer, Crane & Company (resigned, 2015)
2006
Brad Spear — radio personality, marketing executive (resigned 2011, returned to membership 2018)
2009
Rev. Robert G. Anderson —certified hospital chaplain supervisor and ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America (resigned 2013)
2011
Rev. James Lumsden — minister, First Church of Christ in Pittsfield (resigned 2016)
Ethan J. Berg — management consultant, investment manager, owner/manager of The Lenox Athenaeum and The Winthrop Estate
2014
Rabbi Joshua Breindel — Temple Anshe Amunim (resigned 2017)
2016
William P. Densmore — Bill Densmore is executive director of the Information Trust Exchange Governing Association. He is a Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) fellow and author of its white paper, “From Persona to Payment: A Status Report on the News Ecosystem, and a Challenge to Create the Next One.” (2015).
A career journalist, publisher and tech entrepreneur, Densmore has been an editor/writer for The Associated Press in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco and for trade publications in business, law, insurance and information-technology in Boston, Chicago and New York. He co-owned and published The Advocate newsweeklies for the Berkshires/southwestern Vermont, from 1983-1992. Densmore founded Amherst, Mass.-based Clickshare Service Corp., which provides user registration, authentication, content access control and transaction services to Internet web content sites and publishers. He is co-founder of Taxonometrics Inc., a New York-based company incubating a news- and information-personalization service called LifeStream®.
He’s a founding member and director of Journalism That Matters and also served eight years on the board of the New England Newspaper & Press Association and four years on the board of Shires Media Partnership, Inc. Densmore also served as director/editor of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst from 2005-2008. It was an effort to find and spotlight individuals making sustainable, innovative use of media (old and new) to foster participatory democracy and community. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of The Berkshire Eagle. Densmore holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in environmental policy and communications.
Richard Felver — librarian, Berkshire Community College (resigned 2018)
2018
Laurie Norton Moffatt — Laurie Norton Moffatt is the director and CEO of Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. A leading scholar of American illustration art, she authored the Norman Rockwell catalogue raisonné and led the growth of the museum from a small house in the artist’s hometown to be a global leader in illustration art exhibitions, scholarship and digital collections connectivity. She founded the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, the nation’s first research institute in American illustration art, which is a hub of illustration art collections, museums, libraries, universities, scholars, curators and professors across the country.
In recognition of the Museum’s national service, President George W. Bush bestowed the National Humanities Medal to the Museum and President Barack Obama invited her to the White House with Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. She was a cultural specialist to Ethiopia and Russia with the US State Department and brought Norman Rockwell’s art to the United Nations. A national arts leader, she has served on the boards of the American Alliance of Museums and Association of Art Museum Directors, and delegate with National Arts Strategy. She has served on numerous not-for-profit boards in the Berkshires, and currently serves on the boards of Berkshire Bank, Berkshire Health Systems and Connecticut College. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in art history from Connecticut College and her MBA from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management.
2019
Lucy Prashker — attorney, Cain Hibbard & Myers, Great Barrington
2020
Ellen Spear — Chief Philanthropy Officer, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
