New Trustees Elected & Volunteer Awards

The Duxbury Rural & Historical Society held its Annual Meeting on February 6, 2018 to celebrate the accomplishments of 2017.

At the meeting, Members of the DRHS voted to elect new board members, honor outgoing board members, and Volunteer Recognition awards were presented to the following:

New Trustees Elected:

Jayne Talmage O’Farrell is elected to a term expiring in 2021. A specialist in business and facility planning, Jayne is a former principal at Reed Elsevier’s RCD/RSMeans Business Solutions where she headed up a consulting practice of cost engineers providing life cycle, cost modeling, budget analysis and market intelligence to organizations embarking on construction and facility projects. Prior to RSMeans, she consulted nationwide for two decades as a hospital consultant in operations and facility design to CEO’s and COO’s building ambulatory facilities. Jayne holds an advanced degree from Boston University and started her career with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, followed by years as consultant to the Harvard Community Health Plan. She served as President of the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association as well as currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Dartmouth Women’s Club of Boston and Duxbury 2020, Inc. With a passion for historic architecture, Jayne enjoys gardening, rowing and cross-country skiing. She is married to Tim O’Farrell and they have been in Duxbury since 1979 where they raised their son, Colin. Jayne and Tim have been members of the DRHS for many years. Jayne has served on the Publications Committee and the Properties Committee, and has been an Interim Board Member since September 2017.

Paul Wales is elected for a term expiring in 2021. Paul grew up in Duxbury and is a graduate of Duxbury High School and Harvard College.  After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal from 1970 to 1973, he came home and wrote songs and played bass in a marginally successful but regionally popular rock and roll band, The Steamers.  During his tenure with The Steamers, Paul also wrote short stories and humor pieces which were published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, New West, The Boston Globe and The Miami Herald. In 1980, Paul moved to California and began a 37-year career in movie advertising. He has written and produced trailers, TV spots and marketing materials for over 300 motion pictures, including Terminator 2, Unforgiven, Jurassic Park II, A Beautiful Mind, Bridesmaids, and Zero Dark Thirty. He retired in 2017. Paul has always had a lifelong interest in Duxbury’s history, traditions, lands and buildings. If you make the mistake of asking him, he will tell you more about growing up in Duxbury in the 50’s than you ever wanted to know. Paul and his wife, Jane Lougee Wales, live on Ocean Woods Drive. Paul has been engaged with the DRHS for the past year, volunteering as a Lands Observer, monitoring the condition and maintenance issues for a significant portion of the land portfolio. His work is an important step in documentation and stewardship of DRHS lands.

Trustees Re-Elected:

Joseph Messina is elected for a term expiring in 2021.

Amy Annis is elected for a term expiring in 2021.

Outgoing Trustees Honored:

The DRHS recognizes the contributions and service of several outgoing board members:

Ed Quinones was elected to the board in 2014. A member of the Properties and Nominating Committees, Ed has also provided corporate support for Christmas at King Caesar, participated as a Decorator, and served as Co-Chair of the Croquet Tournament. During the recent Bradford Project, Ed helped to facilitate the installation of new shades in the building. The DRHS thanks him for his support.

Chelsie Olney joined the board in 2015 and has been active on the Nominating and Lands Committees, in addition to being a supporter of the Bradford Project. Chelsie’s enthusiasm and her background in Education and Publishing was invaluable to the activities of the DRHS and she will be missed.

Brad White was elected to the board in 2012 and served on the Properties Committee. Brad has long supported the DRHS with his background and knowledge in architecture and property management, across a variety of projects. He continues to provide critical emergency support for our buildings and we are grateful to him for his continued friendship.

Volunteer Recognition Awards:

In addition to the staff of the DRHS, hundreds of volunteers make our efforts possible. There is something for everyone at the DRHS, and our volunteers make us so much richer than we would be otherwise. We are grateful every day for their contributions.

This year’s award for Preservation is presented to Paul Wales for his work in providing documentation on the current status and maintenance needs of DRHS land parcels, and for providing a baseline to assess any additional damage or concerns that might arise. His reports are regular, accurate, and very insightful and are an important step in our lands stewardship program.

This year’s award in Education is presented to Mary Alisa Sherman and Toni Orosz, both volunteers with a long history of contribution to the educational outreach programs at DRHS, serving as school program educators, tour guides and, most recently, stepping into a new program to offer bus tours of Duxbury to booked tour groups. This type of programming is reliant on responsible, knowledgeable and trustworthy volunteer help and those words describe no one better than these two tour guides.

The award in Activities is presented to Ed Hughes for bringing to the DRHS his exceptional videography skills, and for offering to video many of our programs and events over the past year, allowing us to archive our work but also to provide access to the material to a wider audience. He is steadfast, enthusiastic and a pleasure to work with.  

This year we are instituting a new award to honor the new volunteer at the DRHS. These volunteers often bring new life and energy to the DRHS and are the lifeblood of future volunteerism. This year’s New Volunteer Award goes to Edith Barnes, for her help at the King Caesar Christmas event, specifically helping in the store with sales and packaging. She has recently expanded her involvement to collections inventory – an effort we are very grateful for.

This year’s award in Lands and Gardens is being offered in recognition of a long standing partnership between us and the Community Garden Club of Duxbury, with Megan McClure (past president) as representative. The Garden Club provides financial and tangible support to the gardens at the King Caesar House of Duxbury. This year in particular, the Garden Club partnered with the Soule Family Descendants to fund and plan a total renovation of the perennial beds which are admired by all who visit the house. This visible reminder of our partnership is stunning and we thank them for their efforts past, present and future and look forward to working with this incredible group of volunteers.

Volunteer of the Year is a special award, offered to volunteers who rise above and beyond in their dedication, enthusiasm and support of the DRHS. This year, it is presented to John Bear, who holds a leadership position at DRHS, but has worked tirelessly far beyond that job description. John has spearheaded a number of important properties maintenance projects, and he has provided extraordinary support to the Executive Director, doing all of this in addition to the expected duties of being a board member, our Treasurer and ensuring our financial responsibilities. The DRHS wishes to be sure that he is recognized for the tremendous amount that he does for the DRHS.