November 2011
Volume 24, Number 5
North Star Voices
We are pleased to introduce you to some of The North Star's contributing writers.
Lyn Bonfield, Peacham, VT
Lyn Bonfield, “Letters from the Past” columnist, divides her time between Peacham and San Francisco. Since 1980 she has worked closely with the Peacham Historical Association. She has worked as an archivist at the Harvard University Archives, Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, Urban Archives at Temple, California Historical Society, and since 1985 as the director of the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University. As an historian, she has published articles in Vermont History, California History, and other journals, and the book Roxana’s Children: The Biography of a Nineteenth-Century Vermont Family with Mary C. Morrison. Currently she is working on a book about Vermonters in the California Gold Rush. Always on the lookout for original letters and diaries written in the 19th century describing farming, village life, or family activities, if your personal archives contain any of these, please let Lynn know at PO Box 200, Peacham VT 05862 or bonfield@sfsu.edu.
Virginia Campbell Downs, Lyndon, VT
Virginia Campbell Downs is a graduate of Lyndon Institute. She attended theUniversity of Vermont during World War II years and was one of the editors of UVM’s newspaper. Following graduation, she was hired as a reporter, feature writer and photographer for the Burlington Daily News. After two years on the newspaper she joined the staff of Avisco News, a magazine for employees of the American Viscose Corporation in New York City. Noticing an ad one day by M.W. Kellogg, an international engineering company, in the New York Times for a writer to start an employee company magazine, she applied, was hired, and started a bi-monthly, Kellogg World. She returned to Vermont in 1953 to marry St. Johnsbury lawyer John Downs, and continued writing regularly for the Burlington Free Press , the Caledonian-Record, Vermont Life, Yankee, Lyndon Independent, and currently, for the North Star Monthly. Books she has written are Northeast Kingdom Cookbook, Life by the Tracks, Mansions and Meadows - Lyndon the Way it Was, Voices from the Kingdom, and, recently, a Civil War memoir, Luther B. Harris: A Prison Story, which she co-edited with Denise Brown, also of Lyndon.
Donna M. Garfield
Donna Garfield has been writing stories since she was a child. A native Vermonter, she graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy, where she was news editor of the Academy newspaper, “The Student”, her senior year. She always thought she would write fiction but finds she enjoys writing about people in the Northeast Kingdom. Donna has worked as a Legal Administrative Assistant for Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC for 25 years and currently writes and takes photographs for “Voice & Vision”, the law firm’s monthly internal newsletter. She is a regular contributor to “The North Star Monthly” and has written articles for “The Caledonian-Record”. Donna has won three photography contests. She won first place in St. Johnsbury Works! for her picture of evening grosbeaks and second place in St. Johnsbury Works! for her picture of autumn foliage. Donna placed second in a contest sponsored by “Arthritis Today” magazine. Her photo showed her husband reading a copy of the magazine while sitting on the fire tower at Burke Mountain. Donna lives in Lyndon with her husband, Reed, and their cat, Emma. They have three grown children who live in the Northeast Kingdom with their families.
Sharon Lakey, Danville, VT
Sharon Lakey has always loved a story. Perhaps it all started by listening to Grandma Lula’s stories (with all the gruesome details) on the plains of Colorado. After moving to Danville with her husband, Dwight, and three young children in the fall of 1979, she became interested in the stories that presented themselves in this beautiful place. In 1988, she and her husband reestablished The North Star with lots of help from community members who loved stories just as much as she did. In 1995 it was back to teaching English at Oxbow High School in Bradford, Vt., where she read, edited and published pages upon pages of stories from middle and high school students. After retiring from teaching in 2007, she was pleased to note that Danville and the surrounding area was still lush with stories and authors willing to ferret them out to share with readers. She gladly rejoined the ranks of North Star contributors in 2008.
Justin Lavely, West Danville, VT
Justin Lavely graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon State College with a degree in journalism and writing. After a couple of years as an intern for the The Courier in Littleton, N.H., he also served as a reporter, assistant editor and managing editor. Prior to owning the North Star, much of his writing was focused on hard news, which included a gambit of legal, social and human interest articles for The Courier, The Union Leader and Boston Magazine.
Marvin Minkler, St. Johnsbury, VT
Marvin Minkler is a native Vermonter, who returned to the Northeast Kingdom in 1994, and will never leave again. He works for a mental health agency. An avid book collector and reader, he owns Marvin Minkler Modern First Editions, an on-line book business. His hobbies are reading, listening to music, writing poetry, book reviews, and collecting stuff. He lives in St. Johnsbury with his wife, Mary, little girl Lizzy, three cats and Buddy the dog.
Van Parker, Danville, VT
Van Parker and his wife Lucille (Lucy) are seasonal residents of Danville. They live in West Hartford, Conn. during the colder 6 months of the year. Van is a United Church of Christ minister who served churches in Ohio, Michigan, and Massachusetts and, from 1968 to 1995, in Windsor Conn. His hobbies include vegetable gardening, growing blueberries and raspberries, walking, reading (particularly history) and writing. Van graduated from Middlebury College before going to Yale Divinity School and has many Vermont family ties. Van and Lucy are the parents of three children and grandparents of seven, including twins born in February 2008. Their home in North Danville has become a family gathering place, both at Christmas and during the summer.
Rachel S. Siegel, Barnet, VT
Rachel S. Siegel, CFA, has been writing Follow the Money since 2001. Her columns and editorials have also been featured in The Ammonoosuc Times and The Forward. She has been a professor in the Business Administration Department at Lyndon State College since 1990, teaching finance, accounting, and, of course, economics. Siegel has a BA degree in English literature and an MBA, both from Yale University. She lives in Barnet, VT.
Woody Starkweather, West Danville, VT
Woody Starkweather grew up in southern Connecticut, went to the Hotchkiss School and then to Hamilton College, majoring in English and French. He worked in the publishing business for a number of years before going to graduate school at Southern Illinois University, where he received a Ph.D. in Speech and Language in 1970. He then worked as a Professor of Language and Speech Sciences, first at the City University of New York, then at Temple University in Philadelphia. He retired in 2000. In 2004 he and his wife Janet Givens joined the Peace Corps and spent two years teaching English in Kazakhstan. He is the author of a dozen books and numerous scientific articles on speech and language and is recognized as a leading authority on the problem of stuttering. While in the Peace Corps he wrote five novels and 20 short stories, of which the latter were published as a book in 2007. He is an avid musician and singer, performing with several local groups. He lives in Danville.
Isobel P. Swartz, St. Johnsbury, VT
Isobel P. Swartz was born, raised and educated in England but she thinks of herself as a world citizen! She came to the U.S. in 1965 and has lived in New York and Vermont -- Danville and St. Johnsbury. She taught high school science in the UK, Switzerland and the U.S. She was a childbirth educator for Caledonia Home Health Care for 30 years, a job she really loved. She has been married for 40 + years to a very patient man. She is the mother of three daughters, grandmother of four boys and two girls. Currently, she works at the Fairbanks Museum as a Radon Program Coordinator and as an archivist. Her interests are varied and eclectic: travel, education, history, politics, international affairs, health care, women’s issues, environmental issues, gardening, biking, kayaking, the ocean, music, poetry, reading, and writing about all of these and anything else that stimulates her mind or gets her riled up! She also likes to cook, sew and quilt. In fact, most things interest her to some extent. Her columns are a reflection of her interests, concerns and personal history.
Nathanial Tripp, Barnet, VT
Nathanial Tripp has been living on a hill farm in Barnet raising sheep and vegetables part-time for 35 years. He has written two books ; "Father Soldier Son" published in 1996, and "Confluence" published in 2004. He has also written many articles, two children's books, and produced several videos about nature, science and the environment. He and his wife, author Reeve Lindbergh, would not trade our life here for anything on earth.
Dan Williams, Lyndonville, VT
Dan Williams teaches journalism and English at Lyndon State College. He moved to the Northeast Kingdom from Atlanta with wife Susan and son Jimmy in 2006. A grown son, Martin, is an engineer in Boston, and daughter Gretchen is in medical school in Missouri. Williams entered the academic world after a quarter-century in print and broadcast journalism in the United States and Europe, including stints at CNN and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.