Births
• In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), July 19, 2013, a son, Brantley Edward Wright, to Lylah (Bailey) and Joseph Wright of Townshend; grandson to Debbie Martel, Mike Bailey, and Joseph and Priscilla Wright.
• In Brattleboro (Memorial Hospital), July 10, 2013, a son, Adam Ray Schoolcraft, to Kristy (Shippee) and Jessi Schoolcraft of Brattleboro; grandson to Michele Schoolcraft and Todd and Angie Howe; greatgrandson to Judy Tetreault.
College news
• Rebecca M. Mayer of Brattleboro was among a record number of graduates - 3,169 - presented with diplomas at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell's 2013 Commencement exercises on May 18 at the Tsongas Center.
• Benjamin Harwood of Brattleboro, received a bachelor's degree in civil cngineering magna cum laude on May 19 from Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He was also named to the university's spring 2013 Dean's List.
Obituaries
• William Doyle, 90, of Bellows Falls. Died July 21 at Springfield Hospital. Brother of Lawrence Doyle, Florence Stankevich, and the late Clarence Doyle, John Doyle, Mildred Bashaw, and Elizabeth Kuczynski. Longtime friend of the late Clara Jurkoic. Born in Rumford, Maine, the son of the late Joseph and Christina (Coughlin) Doyle, he attended St. Charles School and Bellows Falls High School, where he was a softball pitcher. He worked as a machinist for Moore & Thompson Paper Mill and Jones & Lamson. He was a member of the American Legion, the Moose, and the Polish American Club. He was an avid hunter who enjoyed traveling. Memorial information: A funeral Mass was held July 24 at St. Charles Church in Bellows Falls, with burial in St. Charles Cemetery in Westminster. Arrangements under the direction of Fenton & Hennessey Funeral Home in Bellows Falls.
• Carl Cecil Fisher Sr., 80, a former resident of Westminster and Putney. Died July 18 at the Vermont Veterans Home following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Former husband of Priscilla (Green) Fisher of West Dummerston. Father of Victoria Thorpe of Arlington, Edward Carl Fisher of West Swanzey, N.H., and the late Carl Cecil Fisher Jr. Brother of Katherine Paul of Westminster, Lorraine Spaulding of Walpole, N.H., Jane King of Swanzey, N.H., Linda Thompson of Pennsylvania, Ben Fisher of North Fort Myers, Fla., Harry Fisher, and the late Mary Olcott, Barbara Barlow, George Fisher, and Charles Robinson. Born in Putney, the son of the late Cecil and Madlyn (Butler) Fisher, he received his education in the Westminster schools. He served in the Army as an ambulance driver during the Korean Conflict. He drove his ambulance on many battlefields across the Korean Peninsula and was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions in combat. He was a lifelong dairy farmer. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed hunting, fishing, sport shooting, and working on his cars and farm equipment. Memorial information: Graveside committal services will be held Thursday, Aug. 8, at 7 p.m., at the family lot in Meeting Hill House Cemetery in Brattleboro. Donations to the Activities Fund at the Vermont Veterans Home, in care of Mahar & Son Funeral Home, 628 Main St., Bennington, VT 05201.
• Karen Kemnitzer, 57, of Stratton. Died July 1. Daughter of Barbara Abizaid and Donald Kemnitzer. Mother of Cooper and Corey Bills. Sister of Karl Kemnitzer, twin sister Kerry Kemnitzer-Yoshikawa, and younger sister Darcy Kemnitzer. Born in Boston, she resided in Somers, Conn., for the first third of her life, eventually settling in Stratton. Memorial information: A gathering to celebrate her life was held July 28 at the Stratton Town Hall.
• Myrtle Irene Kuusela, 90, of Keene, N.H. Died July 20 at Cheshire Medical Center, following a period of declining health. Wife of the late Leonard Kuusela for 15 years. Mother of Roxanna Shabazz Kuusela of Keene and the late Dr. Maurice Kuusela. Sister of Dorothy Atomanuk of Brattleboro, Ruth Nichols of Troy, N.Y., Beatrice Tenney of Hollywood, Calif., and the late Ernest and Melvin Tenney. Born in Northfield, Mass., the daughter of the late Claude and Gladys (Spring) Tenney, she was raised and educated in Vernon and had attended Brattleboro High School. A former resident of Margate, Fla., she had been employed for many years for Winn-Dixie Supermarkets. Previously she worked for the Abundant Life Christian Church in Margate. In her earlier years, she worked as an LNA at McGirr's Nursing Home in Bellows Falls. Steadfast in her walk of faith, she was a member of Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bellows Falls and was a member of the former Dennis Rebekah Lodge. She especially enjoyed gardening, crocheting, and crafts, and was known for her excellent cooking. Memorial information: Graveside committal services were conducted July 27 in Whithead Cemetery in Vernon. Donations to Immanuel Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 64, Bellows Falls, VT 05101. Arrangements are under the direction of the Atamaniuk Funeral Home.
• David Young Parker, 82, of Brookline. Died July 17 at his home. Husband of Carol Wertz Parker for 62 years. Father of David Young Parker, Jr. and his wife, Lee Anne, and Valinda Parker Gorder and her husband, Paul. Brother of Rachael P. Paul and Elizabeth P. Sanders. Born in East Aurora, N.Y., the son of the late Gordon Nye Parker and Elizabeth Dickson Young Parker, he graduated from the Nichols School in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1949, and received a B.A. in Business from Middlebury College in 1953. For 20 years, David managed a family-owned manufacturing firm, Cling-Surface Company, expanding the firm's overseas business. During this time, he was active in the Buffalo chapter of the World Trade Association, serving as its president for several years in the 1960s. In 1973, he moved to his family home in Vermont full-time, and worked first for Boise Cascade and then Specialty Paperboard as export sales manager until his retirement in 1994. He was proud of his almost 2 million miles of travel for his work that took him to more than 50 countries in Europe, Asia, and South America. He was a lifelong Rotarian and was also proud of the fact that he attended Rotary in virtually all of those 50 countries. He loved to fly and, for many years, had a small plane of his own that he and his wife would take on vacations to Florida, the outer-islands of the Bahamas, South Texas, and many closer places. For much of his life, he was an avid outdoorsman and loved to hunt, snowshoe, canoe, and garden, and remained an active steward of his land in Brookline. Attending the Annual Town Meeting in Brookline was an event that he enjoyed immensely and never missed. But more than anything, he loved his family, his land, his home, and his community. Memorial information: A funeral service was held on July 27 at Newfane Congregational Church.
• Tiffany Anne Tetreault, 30, of Dummerston. Died July 25 in Townshend, the day before her 31st birthday. Daughter of Robert and Adele (Stair) Tetreault. Sister of Craig Tetreault of Dummerston. Born in Brattleboro, she was raised and educated in Guilford and attended Brattleboro Union High School. She worked locally as a waitress at the former Bickford's Restaurant in Brattleboro and, for the past seven years, at Rick's Tavern in Newfane. More recently, she made her home with her brother, whom she also considered her best friend since childhood. She was an accomplished runner and swimmer. As a junior at BUHS, she qualified for the New England Regionals. She was also a member of the Greater Brattleboro Swim Team for several years. She was also a gifted pianist who often found playing to be emotionally rewarding. She loved the ocean and vacation trips to Florida, going fishing with her Dad, and quality time shared with her family, close friends and her cats. She was an avid Red Sox, Bruins, and Patriots fan. Memorial information: No formal funeral service was held. Donations to the Windham County Humane Society, P.O. Box 397, Brattleboro, VT 05302. Arrangements were under the direction of the Atamaniuk Funeral Home.
• Ted Webster, 80, of Marlboro. Died July 18 at home after a 20-year battle with prostate cancer. Partner of Edie Mas and her children, Alex and Carl. Husband of the late Susan Griggs. Father of Mark, John and Chris Webster. Stepfather of Mike and Megan O'Donnell. Brother of the late David Webster. Born in Abington, Pa., the son of the late Harold Shoemaker Webster and Grace Edel Gourley, he spent most of his childhood in Jenkintown, Pa. He moved to West Dover in 1995, then neighboring Marlboro in 2002 after living in various communities in Massachusetts. He graduated from Gettysburg College in 1955 and served in the Army in Germany 1956-1958, where he started a lifelong love affair with swimming by earning a medal in the Armed Forces Olympics. In 1960, he began a career working for consulting-publishing companies, eventually founding and running Datek Information Services in 1977. He also worked for several nonprofits including International Independence Institute and the Quaker retreat center Pendle Hill, eventually founding the nonprofit Jubilee Center in 1988, promoting experiential worship. He authored and published several books: Savoring One River, the Sufi Order of the West; Print Unchained: A Saga of Invention and Enterprise; The Community Land Trust (co-authored with Robert Swann); and Transformational Joy. He also helped publish Eight Rabbits (biography of George Humphreys), Susan Webster poems (a collection of poetry of his first wife), and Songs From the Hills of Vermont (collected by Edith Barnes Sturgis). He was passionate and tireless in the pursuit of positive social change, and never gave up hope that the world could be a more just and healthy place if only enough people worked to make it so. He was part of the early meetings that helped to start The Commons and he always believed that it would become the truly local newspaper that the local community deserves. A bright-eyed seeker, he was a Quaker, a Sufi, and a deep believer in the power of a spiritual life to build community, provoke healthy questioning, and offer glimpses of transcendence. Never shy to ask a question, express an opinion, or whirl like a dervish, he was respected, admired, and cherished by all who knew him. Memorial information: A memorial service will be held at the Putney Friends Meeting House on Saturday, Sept, 21, at 3 p.m. Donations to Putney Friends Meeting (P.O. Box 381, Putney, VT 05346), or Citizen's Awareness Network (CAN), P.O. Box 83, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370.