League of
Women Voters of the Upper Valley
Hanover,
NH, Norwich, VT and neighboring towns
updated April 29, 2006 Home Page
>> About
the League >> League
Biographies
Members Remembered
Members
of the LWVUV have made significant contributions to the community as
well as to the League. This page contains biographies of some who have
died in 2004-2005.
Jean
L. Hennessey 1927-2004
Jean Hennessey, president of this local League in 1962-63, died in June
2004 at the age of 77. According to her obituary,
"Her
public involvement began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when she
was a member of the Hanover Planning Board, president of the League of
Women Voters, and president of the NH-VT Economic Development Council.
Her leadership in the development of a green belt around Hanover led to
her appointment by New Hampshire Gov. John W. King to chair the
Governor's Commission on Natural Beauty. In 1968, she became the first
executive director of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and
Affiliated Trusts, from which she retired in 1977 to accept the
presidency of Women & Foundations/Corporate Philanthropy. In that
same period, she was a board member and chairwoman of the committee on
legislation and regulation of the Council on Foundations."
In
January 2004, Jean was still active in the League. She helped
plan a program about the founding of the United Nations and the outlook
for its future. According to Jean, her term as president of
the League contributed to her subsequent involvement in a wide range of
quality-of-life
issues.
A Valley News story (June
11, 2004, by Jodie Tillman) said in
part:
Hennessey
informed herself about environmental laws and regulations and, in the
process, developed a deep appreciation of the good that government can
do for people, said her husband. The scope of her interests widened to
include women's and children's issues.
She
wanted to challenge New Hampshire's dominant political ethos that
emphasizes a small role for government, a position that she felt "left
people behind," said John Hennessey.
Being
a practical woman with natural instincts for working with people, she
set out to help strengthen the state's Democratic Party, friends say.
"She
had a great sense of what needs to be done and the practical, financial
means by which it can be accomplished," said friend and former State
Planner Mary Louis Hancock of Concord.
A,
common refrain among Democratic activists was, "We'll have to call Jean
Hennessey. She'll know what to do," recalled Hancock.
While
she once ran for a position on the governor's council, Hennessey never
held political office.
Still,
she worked tirelessly behind the scenes, encouraging
others--particularly women--to run.
"I
think she was an entrepreneur," said John Hennessey, speculating why
his wife was more comfortable behind the scenes. "She didn't want to be
tied down."
Getting
other people involved, he said, "was her passion, and that's what she
did."
One of
Hennessey's earliest coups was the election of Hugh Gallen as state
governor in 1978. She had helped run the Democrat's campaign, and later
served as his budget director. She also campaigned heavily for former
Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
As
someone with the type of gregarious personality comfortable in social
situations, Hennessey cultivated contacts to the degree that, in the
end, she had compiled a list of 10,000 potential activists and donors,
said Rep. Sharon Nordgren of Hanover, who considered Hennessey a mentor.
Hennessey
was "the keeper of the list," making her the go-to person for Democrats
interested in running for office, said Nordgren. "I think she was good
at bringing people together."
Nordgren
said she never heard Hennessey express dismay that, despite her best
efforts, New Hampshire remains a difficult state for Democrats to get
elected.
"I
think she was always very positive," she said.
Hennessey
held a variety of positions throughout her life, from being the first
executive director of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to being
the first woman appointee to the International Joint Commission United
States and Canada.
She
also became the first director of Dartmouth College's, Institute on
Canada and the U.S., part of the Dickey Center for International
Understanding.
"She
was an active-minded person," said Gene Lyons, director of the Dickey
Center during the mid-1990s. "She knew a lot of people."
At the
age of 68, she took on a position as the American director of the
Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the agency created under the
North American Free Trade Agreement to deal with environmental issues
resulting from free trade.
The
schedule was a grueling one, taking her away to Montreal every
week for countless meetings and reports on such topics as protecting
migratory birds. Nearly every weekend, she'd make the drive in her
Toyota Camry.
"I
have always said that women of my generation who are middle income or
above are the last aristocracy, because in our lifetimes we didn't have
to work,'' Hennessey told the Valley News in 1995. "You could polish
your house all day long. (But) you have a choice: What is it you want
to do in life?"
E.
Louise Wickware 1922-2004
Louise
Wickware was born in Providence, R.I., and graduated from Smith College
in 1943. She retired to Lyme in 1977 after a career in education. Long
active in charity organizations, she was interested in making the world
a better place and increasing people's power and options in life.
She
sponsored needy children in other countries for 37 years, and held
leadership positions or volunteered in many civic organizations,
including the Lyme Utility Club, the League of Women Voters, the
Montshire Museum Magic Carpet Group, the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation of the Upper Valley, the International Women's Club of the
Upper Valley, the Dartmouth College Hopkins Center Gift Shop and Lyme
Robert
McKinley 2005
The
LWVUV notes with sorrow the death in September 2005 of Dr. Robert A.
McKinley, a supporter and member of the League for many years. Bob
moved to Hanover in 1991 with his wife Joan. They both became active in
many local activities. Joan, who had been active with the League in New
York State, was on our local board, while Bob was constant in his
support of the League. Joan died in 1996, and Bob had continued his
interests until this past summer. (Submitted by Lee Udy)
Merelyn
Lee Reeve 1922-2005
"Reeve
had a twenty-year career at Dartmouth as a professor of
speech. She was an authority in spoken communications, with an emphasis
in communications within organizations. In addition to her academic
duties, she was an important resource to help Dartmouth faculty prepare
for the transition to coeducation in the mid-1970s.
"Reeve
was born Aug. 29, 1922, in Garden City, Kan., the daughter of Chester
and Lois Reeve. She earned a bachelor's degree at Northwestern
University, and her master's and Ph.D. degrees in speech at the
University of Denver. She began her career at Dartmouth in 1974 after
teaching several years at the University of Denver. At Dartmouth, she
developed and taught a course on effective communications to more than
300 faculty and administrators. She was also the founding advisor of
Cobra, the first secret society for women at Dartmouth.
"She
authored several books, including The Speech Handbook for Teachers,
A Time to Live, and Women Present at the Creation,
which is about the wives of Dartmouth's presidents. Reeve hosted a
weekly radio program broadcast from the Hanover Inn for the League of
Women Voters called "Upper Valley Insight." She was active with the
Hood Museum of Art and the Hopkins Center for the Arts, both at
Dartmouth, and with the University Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill.
She served on the board of the University of Denver's Library
Association, and was a visiting professor at Cambridge University in
Cambridge, England, and at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. Most
importantly, she was a mentor and friend to many. " (From Dartmouth News Releases)
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