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 2001 and earlier. Other biographies are posted by the
year of death.
In
the
last several years several very active and influential League members
have died: Esther Cohen, Joan McKinley, Vicki Winters, Marcia Baldwin,
Helen Clark, Mary Emerson and Sid Jackson. These members, from their
base in the League, moved out into their communities and, because of
their particular interests, made major differences in the quality of
life for their fellow-citizens.
At
the
1999 Annual Meeting, League members fondly remembered the remarkable
accomplishments of Mary Scott-Craig, Esther Nighswander, Dorcas
Chaffee, and Mary Schultz who died the previous year. We acknowledged
that we
build on the achievements of those who have lived before us, and we
would like to share these memories with the community at large.
Jean
Hoyt, age 99, who had been active all her life in Women's
Issues
died in
August 2001. She
graduated from the University of Minnesota, where she was president of
the Women's Self Government Association. She taught English in
Minnesota and was a member of the English Department at South Dakota
State University in Brookings.
During
WWII she taught English for three years at Arlington (Mass) High
School. After living in Arlington , where she was active on the boards
of several community organizations, she moved with her husband to
Hanover in 1976. She worked in several organizations here. She enjoyed
her writing club and the political scene in Vermont and New Hampshire.
In
the
year 2000, we lost Nan King and Kay Chamberlin. Both had lived full
lives, and remained interested in the future until the end. One of
Nan's last League projects was sending birthday cards to local youths
on their eighteenth birthdays.
Kay
Chamberlin, 1907-2000,
Kay
graduated summa cum laude from Wellesley College, and went on to
receive master's and doctor's degrees in theology from the University
of Chicago Divinity School. She and her husband, Waldo Chamberlin,
moved to Hanover in 1961.
From
1961-72 she was executive secretary of the committee on graduate
fellowships at Dartmouth and from 1972-74 was an ombudsman at the
college.
Nan
King, 1913-2000
Nan
graduated from the University of Rochester as a qualified biology
teacher. Her primary interests were in botany and horticulture. She and
her husband, Allen L. King, moved to Hanover in 1942.
For
more than 50 years she was a volunteer with the Mary Hitchcock Memorial
Hospital Auxiliary. Other organizations that benefited from her
interests and energies were the Hanover Garden Club, the Consumer
Cooperative Society as well as the League of Women Voters. She was the
recipient of the 1987 Hanover Community Chamber of Commerce Citizen of
the Year award and the New Hampshire Governor's 1988 Volunteer of the
Year award.
Mary
Scott-Craig moved to Hanover in 1941.
She was
elected Supervisor of the Checklist in 1958. In the 1960's she served
two terms in the New Hampshire General Court where she was the first
Democratic legislator from Hanover. She was a delegate to the New
Hampshire Constitutional Convention in 1974.
In
the
League she held various offices and encouraged and mentored younger
members. In the community she worked in developing the student intern
program at Dartmouth, and served on the board of the Lebanon Regional
Training Center.
Esther
Nighswander moved to Hanover in 1991.
She
became
active in the League here. Previously she lived in Laconia where she
was a Local League President and a member of the League State Board.
Following
her tenure in League offices, she entered politics and was elected to
the General Court in 1966. As a legislator she represented Laconia and
Guilford until 1982. Her interests and talents led her to work in
meeting the needs of children and their families. She helped found the
first Planned Parenthood Clinic in New Hampshire, and served on the
board of New Hampshire Family Services. As a member of the Laconia and
Guilford School Boards, she served for 12 years on each board, and was
a founder of the New Hampshire Council for Better Schools.
Dorcas
Chaffee, at the time of her death, had lived in Lyme since 1948.
She
was
General Office Manager for Dr. William Putnam, an experience which
helped shape her concerns for health and education issues.
She
worked with her husband to help found the Montshire Museum which opened
in 1977. When the Museum was a reality, she helped develop a program to
distribute concrete resource materials to the public schools. Helped by
a federal education grant, she enlisted volunteers who created more
than 500 Move kits on subjects ranging from apples to Zambia. These
kits were sent to the local public schools at teacher request.
She
was active in the League and in her community of Lyme. Her concerns and
activities included affordable housing, the Lyme Home Health Agency,
restoring historical buildings, preserving the town's history, library
volunteer, advocating the Town Ministry, writing columns for the Lyme
Church Newsletter, and creating the Lyme Phone Book. Recently she
worked on a fund to be used for people in need, the Lyme Foundation.
Mary
Schultz
Mary moved
to Hanover when her husband joined the English Department at Dartmouth
College. She was active in the League and was President in 1959-61. She
helped write the traditional Know Your Town and Know Your Schools
booklets. At the culmination of the League process of study and
consensus on selected public policy issues, she helped write position
papers as a basis for League advocacy. With practical as well as
theoretical concerns, she and her husband delivered Meals on Wheels to
local residents.
Esther
Cohen
Esther was
a member of the Vermont Legislature, a Democrat representing
Burlington. First elected in the 1960's, she served until the early
1980's. She and fellow-legislator, Evelyn Jarret, a Republican, were
close friends. They attended LWVVT state conventions together and were
very persuasive in getting the convention to adopt study items such as
the need for a family court.
Jean
Broehl, Elsie Senuta, and Bob McKinley contributed to these biographies.
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