SPECIAL NOTE
I AM
PARTICULARLY PLEASED TO BE PROVIDING A MONTHLY PRESENTATION OF ESSEX
HAPPENING. I AM HAPPY TO BE ONCE AGAIN
PROVIDING MY OPINIONS ON THIS REGION. IT
SHOULD BE NOTED THAT MY THOUGHTS AS PRESENTED DO NOT REFLECT THE PRESENTATION
OF AN EMPLOYEE OR A MANAGER OF ANY OF THE ORGANIZATIONS COMMENTED ON IN THESE
REPORTS. I INTEND TO CONTINUE REPORTS
ON THE SUCCESSES AND THE MISSION OF ESSEX HERITAGE THAT I HELPED TO CREATE AND
LABORED AT FOR OVER TWO DECADES. I WILL
HOWEVER REPORT ON OTHER ORGANIZATIONS WHERE I AM I ALSO INVOLVED AS A BOARD
MEMBER.
ESSEX HERITAGE
EVENTS
Essex Heritage Annual Meeting
Congratulations
to Jack Good of People’s United on his Election as President of Essex Heritage
Seven Lectures at The Seven Gables:
Brunonia Barry
November 20,
2013 • The House of the Seven Gables, 115 Derby Street, Salem, MA, 01970
Salem’s own
NY Times best-selling author, Baccante award winner & Strnad Fellowship
recipient presents her latest novel fresh off the press.
Monthly Essex Heritage Newsletter
One of the
very best ways to keep in contact with all of the activities of the Essex
National Heritage Commission is outlined every month in the newsletter that is
electronically distributed to a wide
groups of Friends of the Commission If
you do not receive this informative presentation you can sign up to receive the
monthly newsletter sign up at the address noted below. Essex Heritage"
HERITAGE HERO DINNER
On October
16, 2013 The Essex National Heritage Commission held its prestigious Heritage
Hero dinner at the Danversport YC in Danvers.
This year the honoree was Joanne Patton and the Patton Family. As noted this recognition event is held each
year and many local prominent community leaders have been honored including the
former Mayor of Newburyport, Byron Matthews, former Mayor of Amesbury, Nick
Costello. Current Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll,
Danvers Town Manager Wayne Marquis, North Shore Community College
Retired President Wayne Burton and last year, I was the honoree. This award presentation was one of the
highlights of my professional life.
This year’s
event was a great success – attended by nearly 450 guests - who toasted the
Pattons and Essex Heritage. The Color Guard
from Norwich University presented the colors accompanied by Sargent Daniel
Clark who recited a moving poem about Old Glory followed by a magnificent
rendition of the National Anthem.
Regional recreational Trails
One of the
primary goals of Essex Heritage, and a longtime interest of this author, is the
development and implementation of recreational activities in this region. The following are details of several
initiatives currently underway in the region.
Danvers
Rail trail completed
With the help of a very important
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Grant the two communities of Danvers and Wenham
have completed valuable sections of the BORDER TO BOSTON TRAIL. As a longtime resident of the Town of
Danvers I want to compliment the coalition from that community who came
together to complete this important regional asset that will be used and
enjoyed by many from Danvers and nearby
communities into the future. The
permanent crushed and rolled stone surface on the trail will serve many well
into the future.
City
of Lawrence Opens Greenway
The City of Lawrence recently held a
ribbon cutting ceremony to signify the opening of the Spiket River
Greenway. The greenway is a three and
one half mile, ten million dollar project that runs from the Polartec Company
to Union Square and includes green spaces, and walking paths. The greenway is
now open to the general public for their use.
The project was a collaboration of federal. State, and community groups.
Walking
Trail in West Newbury Built by Volunteers
In West Newbury, a group of community
volunteers, students and residents constructed a one mile walking trail that
crosses four parcels on thirty acres of
conservation land along Essex County Greenbelt property.
Other Regional
Events and Activities
Two Local Bank Presidents and Community
Activists to Retire
Announcements
of two impending retirements have been offered to the region by local Bank
leaders Both organizations in question
are strong financial and moral supporters of the region and particularly that
of Essex Heritage. The first of these
retirements is the decision of long time leader of Rockport National Bank,
Peter Anderson to step down in September.
The second
of these careers coming to an end is by the long time President of Salem Five
Bank Joseph Gibbons. This retirement
means a great deal more to me as Joe and I worked together for a number of
years when I was also employed by that Bank.
Joe provided substantial support to this region and particularly to
Essex Heritage where he replaced me when I retired on the Essex Heritage Board
of Trustees Joe will be replaced at
Salem by the institutions Chief Financial Officer, Ping Yin Chai who I also
worked with for many years at the bank..
Concurrent with these changes Salem Five also named Bruce Potter of
Danvers as the Executive Vice President.
Bruce is another former associate of mine at Salem Five Bank. `Best of wishes to the two CEO’s in their
retirements and to their replacements
that I am certain will represent their Banks
to the region in the future.
St. Richard’s of Danvers Golden anniversary
Events
My wife
Marge and I are exceptionally pleased to be serving as the honorary
chairpersons of the celebrations being offered by the Danvers Catholic
parish. There have been concerts,
social events, celebratory liturgical events and plans are underway to make
improvements to the church facility including accessibility conditions.
The next planned parish function
scheduled is participation in a Road Race/Walk on October 6th at 1:30 followed
by a parish cookout for the runners and parishioners that will be there to
welcome the runners participation. The
race will start and finish at the Town’s sensational recreational venue at
Endicott Park adjacent to the church.
After the race all will be invited to participate in a Parish Picnic,
with a cookout, games and baked goods at noon.
The race entry fee door the run will be $20, but the picnic will be
priced at $5 or $20 for a family to all other parish attendees.
North Shore Elder Services (Longevity
Connection)
We all know what is means to get old, right?
by Eileen
Lubas, Manager, The Longevity Connection;
Click here to read it now!:
http://longevityconnect.org/we-all-know-what-is-means-to-get-old-right/
Personal Observations
Fall Arrives Along with Football and other
Autumn sports
There are
many in the region that laments when the summer passes, but the fall can be
such a pleasant time as temperatures moderate and the humidity usually
drops. For those that enjoy the fall
season, with numerous family activities like apple picking, leaf viewing and
from my standpoint football returns to the region. We are so blessed in this region to have a
most competitive professional team and there are a plentiful group of college,
high schools and youth programs for viewing pleasure. This is not to demean the
numerous regional participants in soccer and Field Hockey, and I am a very
vocal supporter of those two sports as I have granddaughters participating in
Varsity efforts at both Danvers and Algonquin Regional High School, and my wife
and I were regular viewers of school sports.
Those interests will be impacted be personal changes to our personal
activities outlined later in this Blog.
The New
England Patriots experienced a bump in the road with a very slow and uneven
start of the season, bit sill stand an 2 and 0, but the outlook for the success
of that team is still most optimistic. Now if Boston College, that has started two
and 1 UMass and the other local colleges plus your favorite community HIGH
school team can be reasonably successful then the fall will be enjoyed.
Now that
Labor Day has come and gone and the local schools have reopened, it is once
again time for me to offer some observations on one of my favorite subjects, my
Grandchildren and their connections to school sports. My oldest is away at the University of North
Carolina where he serves as one of the leaders of a Dance Marathon event to
benefit a children’s hospital on his University Campus. The next oldest is a girl, Katherine that
is serving as one of the captains of the field, hockey team at Danvers high
school, that is looking forward to a successful season. The other young lady, Caroline, after a
successful Junior Varsity season last year is one of only three sophomores’
that have been picked to play on the Varsity Soccer Team at Algonquin Regional
High School. We planned to take a
number of trips to the west of the North Shore to watch her perform this seas,.
But those plans are now in a state of flux.
Our last grandchild Casey is still at the Jr. High Level, but in the
fall and winter of 2013, he will participate on an AAU Baseball team based in
Sutton. That experience should help
him as he progresses in youth baseball on the future..
CELEBRATIONS
On a Sunday
in the middle of the last month, Marge and I feel very sorry that we were unable
to join my sister and her family as they celebrated the golden wedding
anniversary. Nancy and her husband Neil
Savianio celebrated at the Historic Hawthorne Hotel In Salem.
Woodman’s Celebrate in unusual manner
A long time
friend and occasional business associate Jon
Woodman and his wife Betsy recently celebrated their fiftieth wedding
anniversary by offering a free jazz convert for their community for their
friends and associates. It was a great
way to celebrate a milestone date.
Golden Anniversary of the Organization of Father
John O’Donnell of Salem
We are most
disappointed that late last month we were unable due to the injury noted below,
unable to attend a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the ordination of
Father John O’Donnell to the priesthood.
The event was commemorated with a mass in Salem followed by a luncheon
at the Historic Hawthorne Hotel. Fifty
years ago, Marge and I attended John’s Ordination in Gloucester, and his first
mass in Salem. John was a boyhood
friend growing up, and he baptized both of our sons.
Situation in Syria
The ongoing
situation in Syria when coupled with the Anniversary of 9/11 leaves many
questions about the proposed actions of this government. It will be a most difficult time with possible
cyber attacks and other problems being considered as a offshoot. It does appear that the Secretary of State
Kerry is close to a nonmilitary solution to address these issues both in other
countries and here in the USA. There has been a long period of conflicts in
this world. and it appears that the majority of the American citizens do not
want another military conflict, and that certainly impacts the decisions of our
president and our other elected officials.
Marge Suffers a Serious Injury
My wife Marge
suffered a serious injury when she slipped on a staircase and x-rays showed the
breakage of two bones in her ankle.
There are a number of steps still to be considered by the tending
medical people involved, and we must wait for that information before we move
forward. The one thing that appears
certain, is that the daily living of our lives will change rather dramatically
over the weeks ahead. We will keep you
updated on what we learn and how those changes will impact our joint efforts to
continue to serve many organizations in the region. We would like to thank our family, many good
friends and neighbors who have jumped to our aid. Many thanks to all of them.
Summer Reading
When I find
an author whose writing style I enjoy, I usually seek another offering for my
reading pleasure. This is the case with
Jean Edward Smith, and staying with the military theme, I have just finished
reading ‘Eisenhower in War and peace’’ The life story goes from his earliest
days in Kansas. Then followed by his days at the military academy at West
Point. He excelled in both academics and
athletics at that Institution.
The story
then continued through his early years in the Army where he worked for two army
giants, ‘Black Jack” Pershing and Douglas Mac Arthur both generals and hero’s
to the county. He had a number of army
heavyweights that helped his career through his association with MacArthur in
the Philippines and for Pershing as he worked on the presentation of Pershing’s
memoirs on the first war in Francs. The
work done by Ike on the first World War walking in the fields of France was
incredibly helpful to him as he participated in the later war during the
invasion of Europe. Hus earliest days
were in tanks, where he developed a close association and long term friendship
with General George Paton that was very helpful later during subsequent
military encounters. The memoir
carried through his work coaching football
at Army Installations and then on
to the invasion of Italy.
A great deal
of the book focused on his work as the Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces
the carried on the greatest invasion of all time in Normandy France. His incredible work in building the required
coalition between he English and the Americans certainly prepared him for the
role he would later play as the American President. The history carried on through his two terms
as president and the difficult task of leading the USA after the war through
“McCarthyism” and the emergence of the importance of the Middle East in world
affairs. The presentation covered his
participation in two wars at that time in Korea and Vietnam.
The memoir
continued with reports on Presidential initiatives on matters such as the
development of the St Lawrence Seaway and a comprehensive national highway
system. The book also reported on
social activities such as the expansion of social security recipients and
increases in the minimum wages paid at that time. The book also chronicled the work dome on a
retirement farm in Gettysburg that was at the time of the death of the
Eisenhower’s was deeded to the National Park Service.
`There was a
heart attack and a Gastro intestinal that the President survived and severe
crises in places life Formosa and the middle east that he managed successfully
and after much deliberations. Ike decided to run for a second term where and
won handily over Adele Stevenson
Ike became
somewhat involved in the Segregation issue mote than any President before him
in issues in Little Rock, Arkansas. School issue. Where he sent in federal
troops
The book
concluded with the first issues
surrounding the space race and the
Russian launch of a Russian Satellite and U2 flight. The President suffered several medical
setbacks including a small stroke but continued to effectively lead the country
during most turbulent times.
The book
concluded with the election of JFK over VP Nixon. The final entry recorded the removal of a life
support systems from the former president at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington Prior to leaving office as a former lifelong
military man, his rank as a five Star General of the Army was restored, as he
value being known as General rather than as a former President was most
important to him.
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