Obituaries
• Doris Squire Goss, 90, of Brattleboro. Died Sept. 17 at home. Wife of the late John P. Goss. Mother of Deborah Goss of Lexington, Mass.; Janet Burke and her husband, Jim, of Montpelier; Heather Fischer and her husband Sam of Mashpee, Mass.; and John Rollin and Emily Goss of Carnelian Bay, Calif. Sister of Polly S. Quinn of Hinesburg, and the late Helen Evans, Anne Hayer, Horace Squire, and Ruth Briggs. Born in Moretown, the daughter of the late Horace H. and Ella (Gordon) Squire, she attended grammar and high school in Waterbury and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1943. She directed the glee clubs and conducted the orchestra at Lyndon Institute for six years, taught public school music and directed church choirs in Lyndonville, Stowe, and Brattleboro and, for 40 years, sang in and assisted with choruses conducted by Brattleboro Music Center founder Blanche Moyse. In her early years, she performed as a contralto soloist and later coached private voice students. She was renowned among friends for her summer tan and sense of style. She was an exceptional seamstress who made clothing for herself and her family, as well as creating quilts and prized fabric items sold to benefit her church. She had a talent for drawing and painting, refinishing woodwork, upholstering furniture, and wallpapering and decorating her home. Her family will remember her sly sense of humor. She was a member and former deaconess of First Congregational Church, served as a trustee and clerk of the Brattleboro Music Center and was a Friend of Music at Guilford. She was also a member of Queen Esther and Bingham Chapters of the Order of the Eastern Star. Memorial information: A memorial service will be announced at a later date. Burial will be in the Hartford Cemetery. Donations to the First Congregational Church Endowment Fund, P.O. Box 2389, West Brattleboro VT 05303, or the Brattleboro Music Center, 38 Walnut St. Brattleboro 05301. Condolences may be sent to Atamaniuk Funeral Home at www.atamaniuk.com.
• Richard W. “Dick” Kelley Sr., 78, of Brattleboro. Died Sept. 20 at his home following an extended illness. Husband of Nancy Johnson Kelley for 54 years. Father of Richard Kelley Jr. of Westminster, Linniel Kelley of Brattleboro, two daughters, Charlotte “Cheri” Bishop of Brattleboro, and Amy Murry of Rutland. Brother of Evelyn “Mona” Mitchell and Jane Farina, both of Keene, N.H., and the late Liniel Kelley, Harry “Tiny” Kelley, Maurice “Chick” Kelley, Beatrice “Mina-bird” Burrington, and Katherine “Rita” Martin. Born in Keene, N.H., the son of the late Harry and Lillian (Olmstead) Kelley, he was raised and educated in Keene and later in Brattleboro, where he attended Brattleboro High School. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17, and served during the Korean War aboard the USS Kearsage, an aircraft carrier that he held great affection for. He was honorably discharged from active service in May 1954. He had been employed for 30 years at A.L. Tyler & Sons in Brattleboro, which he retired from in 1999. Previously, he had worked at The Experiment in International Living, now World Learning. Following retirement, he worked part-time at G.S. Precision in Brattleboro. He had attended West Brattleboro Baptist Church for many years and was a former member of the American Legion Brattleboro Post 5. He was an avid Boston Red Sox fan, and also enjoyed hunting and vacationing with his family at York Beach, Maine. Memorial information: Graveside committal services with full military honors were held Sept. 25 in Locust Ridge Cemetery in Brattleboro. Donations to a charity of one's choice. Condolences may be sent to Atamaniuk Funeral Home at www.atamaniuk.com.
• Bernice S. Luskin, 87, formerly of Westport, Conn. Died Sept. 17 at Meadow Ridge in Redding, Conn. Wife of Bernard Luskin for 66 years. Mother of Michael Luskin and his wife, Judith (Levine) Luskin, of Scarsdale, N.Y.; David Luskin and his wife, Claire Bender, of Breckenridge, Colo.; Deborah Luskin and, her husband, Dr. Timothy Shafer, of Newfane; and Jonathan Luskin and his wife, Leslie Katz, of San Francisco. Sister of David Spikol and his wife, Joan, of Connecticut and Vermont. Born in Philadelphia, the daughter of Rebecca (Furgang) and Samuel Spikol, she grew up in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, N.Y. She was the first in her family to graduate high school and attend college. She earned a B.A. from Brooklyn College and a Master's of Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She lived in Bermuda and northern New Jersey before settling in Connecticut in 1966. She taught special education in the Westport school system for many years. She was an active volunteer in her community. As a member of the League of Women Voters, she participated in the get-out-the-vote effort to help pass the legislation that made the Teaneck, N.J., school district the first in the nation to achieve voluntary integration in 1965. She served on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Westport (Connecticut), as well as a volunteer for Parents as Teachers, a program she helped develop. With her husband, she travelled the world, visiting more than 30 countries across six continents. In the late 1960s, Bernice took up downhill skiing, a sport she enjoyed for nearly 40 years. Memorial information: In lieu of memorial gifts, she urges all mourners to read, to be informed, and to vote.
• Dorothy Lorraine Martin, 83, of Winchester and Hinsdale, N.H. Died Sept. 17 at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, N.H. Sister of Virginia M. Carey of Keene, N.H. and the late Edward Martin. Born in Brattleboro, the daughter of the late Walter O. and Gladys (Benoit) Martin, she worked for more than 20 years with H. Margolin in Brattleboro. Memorial information: Services and burial in St. Joseph Cemetery in Hinsdale, will be private.
• Doris Ryan, 99, of Brattleboro. Died Sept. 12, after a short illness. Wife of the late Charles J. Ryan for 48 years. Mother of Jean O'Connor of Newport, N.H., Harriette (Weatherhead) Ellis of West Brattleboro, Lorraine Fournier of Hinsdale, N.H., and the late Charles S. (Butch) Ryan. Sister of Yvonne Nadeau of Vernon. Born in Greenfield, Mass., the daughter of the late George Beauvais and Vivian (Wood) Beauvais, she graduated from Brattleboro High School, Class of 1931. Before retiring from the workforce many years ago, she worked for Berkshire Fine Spinning Co. in Brattleboro for 24 years, in the sewing room at the Book Press in Brattleboro for a few years, and a Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in the dining room cafeteria for three years. She volunteered as a dispatcher at the Brattleboro Senior Center, was a past president of the Hayes Court Association in West Brattleboro, and was a Secretary on the Advisory Council Committee at Hayes Court for two years. She was a member of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Brattleboro. Memorial information: A memorial service was held Sept. 22 at the chapel of the Vernon Hall Assisted Living facility in Vernon. Donations to the Brattleboro Firefighter's Association or Rescue Inc.
• John VanDyke “Dyke” Wilmerding, 91, of Red Hook, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Died Sept. 17 in Boston after an extended illness. Husband of Inga Sonnichsen Wilmerding for 53 years. Former husband of Mary Virginia “Bebe” Reppert. Father of John VanDyke Wilmerding Jr., of Brattleboro, James Reppert Wilmerding of Mt. Shasta, Calif., Douglas Clinton Wilmerding of Southampton, N.Y., and Marta Wilmerding MacFarland of Marshfield, Mass. Brother of Margaret Augusta Wilmerding Burghardt of Chico, Calif., Katharine Bache Wilmerding Rule of Vero Beach, Fla., and Pelham Clinton Wilmerding II of Santee, Calif. The eldest of five children of the late Pelham Clinton Wilmerding and Margaret DeMotte Eggie, he was born in Plainfield, N.J. He attended Wardlaw School, a private college-preparatory school in Plainfield, and liked to tell the story of how, in 1939, as a senior, he was taken aside by the school's headmaster and told he would only allow him to graduate with his 1939 class if he promised not to go to college. After graduation, he apprenticed to a local machine shop, and worked there until he enlisted in the Navy in 1943 during World War II. Assigned to duty on a new aircraft carrier, he was injured during its shakedown cruise in the Pacific, and was honorably discharged with a Purple Heart. After marrying his first wife, he went to Atlanta and attended the Georgia Institute of Technology under the GI Bill. He graduated with a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering in 1948, and then went to Mojave, California, where he took a job at Edwards Air Force Base with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor agency to NASA. He helped test experimental aircraft, and was present as part of the support team when famous test pilot Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the X-1 rocket plane. On the urging of his wife Mary, the Wilmerdings moved back east and he started work for Republic Aviation Corp. in Farmingdale, N.Y., first as an aircraft tester and later as a salesman. After his divorce in 1958, he married Inga, whom he met at Republic, a year later. He later worked at Grumman Aerospace, where he eventually became involved in some early design and conceptual work for the Apollo Program's Lunar Excursion Module. A Caribbean vacation sparked the idea to relocate to the Virgin Islands and sail for a living. John and Inga purchased a famous old John Alden schooner, the Mandoo, and spent a year repairing and refurbishing the classic wooden vessel before they sailed her to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and began charter-sailing the Virgins with themselves as crew in 1963. They continued chartering the Mandoo until 1973, when they sold her and purchased Sol Quest, a 53-foot fiberglass ketch of British manufacture. They sailed her from Boothbay Harbor, Maine to the Virgin Islands, via the intracoastal waterway, then through the Bermuda Triangle from Morehead City, N.C. Along the way, he re-christened her the Zulu Warrior, after a South African rugby song that he was fond of singing for charter guests. In all, they spent three decades sailing their charter boats until they retired in the early 1990s. He was a charismatic individual, made many fast friends, and was much admired in yachting and crewed-boat chartering circles in particular.Though he was born to privilege, he never allowed his children to believe for a moment that they had been. They watched him and learned, as he persevered through a difficult divorce, remarried again for love, chose the career his heart dictated, and won almost universal admiration among friends, family, and everyone he knew. His irascible personality, constant sense of humor, and charm made him the perfect sailboat captain. Near the end, his children expressed their gratitude to him for teaching them much of what makes life worthwhile. Memorial information: No services have been planned as yet.
Births
• In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), Sept. 8, 2012, a daughter, Aurora Cyra Squires, to Heather Pereira and Michael Squiers. Grandaughter to George and Margaret Squiers, and Dawn Baxter and John Pereira.
College news
• Saint Michael's College student Matthew Nault of South Londonderry is studying abroad for the fall 2012 semester. Nault, a junior business administration and accounting major, is studying at John Cabot University in Rome.
• The following local students recently earned degrees from Union Institute & University: Christine Linn of Brattleboro has earned a Master Of Arts, Amanda Walsh of Saxtons River has earned a Bachelor Of Arts, James Bartshe of Brattleboro earned a Master Of Arts, and Noah Hoskins-Forsythe of Putney and Emily Wagner of Brattleboro both earned a Master Of Education.
• T. Stores of Newfane, an associate professor of English in the University of Hartford's College of Arts and Sciences, was honored with an Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award at the University's annual Faculty/Staff Kickoff on Aug. 29. The award honors faculty members who have shown exceptional dedication, innovation, and effectiveness in their teaching, as well as extensive interaction with students.