In Memoriam Doris Mae (Hawkins) Dickinson March 15, 1925 – February 20, 2015
The Stone House Museum mourns the passing of Doris Dickinson. Photo courtesy of Belchertown Sentinel and Aimee Henderson.
Regarding the passing of Doris Dickinson there is only too little or too much to say; we could devote the entire newsletter to her and say too little, and if we recited the many good works she did, there would be too much to include here.
I cannot write of Doris without personal emotions being present; my earliest memories of her are what would now impersonally be called “daycare” or “babysitting”. While my mother, who Sarah (her daughter) referred to as “your Doris” (my mother, a Math professor at UMASS) was at work, she (“my Doris”) sometimes trusted Doris Dickinson to care for me and her same-aged daughter, Sarah. It was not a small or insignificant charge, as any working mother knows, but clearly I was in good hands. Doris Dickinson was my pre-school teacher, and her daughter (Sarah) was in my kindergarten class and we both walked about 20 feet behind the “graduates” in our little robes; we were two little chipmunks at the end of the line: we both had mumps!
Photo by Carol Mierzewski
Regarding her work for the Stone House—she did just about everything, at one time or another. If a job needed doing, she stepped in and did it, from buildings and grounds to painstaking research for special projects. In her later years she loved the documents and the archives, which the Trustees named in her honor when she moved; they are now the “Doris Dickinson Archives” at the Stone House Museum. Her enduring dedication to our Association, and her love for our town’s history and our museum have been an inspiration to me for as long as I can remember; through her tireless perseverance and diligence she left a lasting legacy that will endure for generations. Since her passing, every stone of the house and grounds and every picket of the fence seem to want to tell of some positive contribution she effected. We mourn her passing and remember and celebrate the difference she made in all our lives.
The last I can say is that she did many good works in the different areas of the community that she was involved in, and really made a tangible, lasting, positive difference in the world around her. She will be sorely missed.