Obituaries
• Ernest E. “Ernie” Benway, 86, of Chester. Died Nov. 17 at Springfield Hospital, following a recent illness. Husband of Bertha W. (Wheatley) Benway for 63 years. Father of Judi Mills and her husband, Norm, of Hinsdale, N.H.; Cindy Kehoe and her husband, Bob, of Windham; Jeff Benway of Goffstown, N.H.; and Stuart Benway and his wife, Jeanette, of Mount Kisco, N.Y. Brother of Ronald Benway and his wife, Corinne, of South Burlington, and the late Shirley Racine and Edythe Richard. Born in Burlington, the son of the late Ernest and Rose (Vincent) Benway, he was a graduate of the University of Vermont in 1948, with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He was employed as a mechanical engineer at the Bryant Grinder Corp. in Springfield for 35 years, retiring in 1986. Woodworking was a passion throughout his life, and he was a skilled craftsman working with all types of wood. He created beautiful, timeless pieces from smaller items, such as jewelry boxes, clocks and wooden toys, to magnificent bureaus, cabinets, tables and more. His wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are blessed to have many of these beautiful pieces in their homes. Other hobbies included gardening and golfing, and he was an intellectual man who enjoyed reading and learning. He will be fondly remembered for his sense of humor and his multitude of jokes and one-liners. Despite many physical challenges throughout his life, he overcame each with patience, humility and, above all, a deep and abiding faith that never wavered. He was a communicant of St. Joseph's Church in Chester for 62 years. Memorial information: A funeral Mass was held Nov. 23 at St. Joseph's Church, with burial in Pleasant View Cemetery in Chester. Donations to St. Joseph's Church Capital Improvement Fund, P.O. Box 1129, Chester, VT 05143.
• Leon Bruce Bills Jr., 89, of Dummerston. Died Nov. 20 at Pine Heights Nursing Home, following a period of declining health. Husband of Marlene Westine Bills for 54 years. Former husband of Ethel Grindlay. Father of Bruce and Margaret Bills of Townshend, Craig Bills of Brattleboro, Brett and Vickie Bills of Newfane, Randy and Tina Bills of Brookline, Darlene and Charles Dougherty of Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Kelley and Christopher Pluff of Newfane. Brother of Leona Fuller of Barre and Doris Clark of Ludlow. Predeceased by six sisters and three brothers. Born in West Wardsboro, the son of the late Leon B. and Sadie (Underwood) Bills, he grew up in Wardsboro where he attended local schools. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy, stationed in the Pacific Theater, from 1944 until his honorable discharge in 1946. For 30 years, he owned and operated Leon Bills Auto Repair on Route 30 in Newfane. Prior to establishing his own business, he had managed L&L Service Center, a full-service gas station located in East Jamaica. In his earlier years, he drove both logging and lumber trucks, making deliveries in Massachusetts and Connecticut. For several years, he had also been employed at Pratt & Whitney in West Hartford, Conn. He held membership in the Valley Lions Club, where he had served as president, and was a member of American Legion Post 16 in Townshend and VFW Carl M. Dessaint Post 1034 in Brattleboro. He was a longtime member of the Newfane Congregational Church, where he had served on the building committee. With his wife, he enjoyed square dancing and was a member of the Green Mountain Squares and the Honey Bee Square Dance Club of Deland, Fla. He preferred warm weather, and for many years wintered in Central Florida with his wife. He enjoyed the outdoors, including hunting and fishing, and was also an avid Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots fan. He was devoted to his family, and cherished time spent them, especially his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Memorial information: A memorial service will be conducted Thursday, Nov. 29, at 2 p.m., at the Newfane Congregational Church. A reception will follow the services to be held at the Newbrook Fire Station on Route 30. Donations to Grace Cottage Hospital, P.O. Box 1, Townshend, VT 05353. Messages of condolence may be sent to Atamaniuk Funeral Home at www.atamaniuk.com.
• Helen Eberle Daly, 60, of Chesterfield, N.H. Died Nov. 15 at her home of cancer. Wife of Dr. John Daly for 28 years. Stepmother of Sage Wirth and Aeron Cox. Sister of Mark and Tom Eberle and the late Jeff Eberle. Born in Westfield, Pa., daughter of the late Joseph Frank Eberle and Sara Jo Forward, she grew up in a patriarchal family with material privilege, and living in “the mansion” was deeply conflictual for her, who desired to be wonderfully ordinary. This experience sensitized her to the depth of division and injustice in our society, and developed an abiding value for human equality. She attended St. John's Episcopal Church as a child and early discovered her love of singing. Over the years, she struggled with traditional church teachings that conveyed division through patriarchal language and was led to explore various spiritual practices. Her life-long spiritual search was drawn toward a feminine and unifying perspective. Eventually, she found her spiritual home in the contemplative practices and Wisdom Christianity. She graduated from Boston University in 1974 and received her bachelor degree in Elementary Education. At BU, she deepened her passion for the arts, participating in music and drama. After graduation, Helen moved to Berkeley to a communal house and worked at the International Center. Following her love of music, she then moved to Texas to work for the Houston Symphony as an administrator, singing in the Symphony Chorus. In the late 1970s, she moved back East to join the family business, settling in Boston and “selling truckloads of leather throughout New England”, strengthening her organizational and business skills. Soon, she was singing again, working at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts and singing with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. It was at this time that she met her deepest love and best friend, her husband John. They began a cancer support group in Cambridge, where she discovered her natural gifts for meditation and healing relationships. In 1988, she received a master's degree in Creative Arts and Learning from Lesley College. Looking to simplify and quiet their life together, the Dalys moved from Cambridge to “Hallelujah Farm” in Chesterfield N.H., where she taught music and movement to children and adults while developing early childhood music programs and trainings for educators. A perennial student, scholar, practitioner, and visionary, she studied Counseling Psychology at Antioch New England Graduate School, receiving her second master's degree in 1993. A gifted psychotherapist, she decided to pursue doctoral studies and proudly received her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Antioch in 1999. She began post-doctoral work at the Anna Marsh Clinic of the Brattleboro Retreat, and continued her work as a psychologist there for the remainder of her life. She believed deeply in the connection of mind, body and spirit both in healing and in life. In the last decade, she became a dedicated student and gifted teacher of Wisdom Christianity, studying with the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault. She will always be remembered for her constant curiosity, fabulous sense of wit, her understanding of human suffering and the potential for healing. Six years ago, she founded The Narthex Project, which she envisioned as her life's calling, now her legacy. A narthex is the entryway to the church sanctuary, for her the symbolic threshold between traditional Christianity and new and reclaimed expressions of the faith. Through this project, her estate will continue to bring her core belief in Christianity toward a more inclusive practice, embracing contemplative prayer and the teachings of Wisdom Christianity. At the end of her life, she funded the building of a new chapel at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Brattleboro. “The Chapel of Mary, The First Apostle” honors the gift of conscious love between Jesus and his first apostle, Mary Magdalene. Her generosity of spirit and resources also supports many community arts efforts and her gift to the Brattleboro Retreat was the most generous individual gift in their history. Memorial information: All are invited to her memorial service, to be held at 5 p.m. at St. Michael's Episcopal Church on Jan. 6 - the Feast of the Epiphany, the season of illuminations. Donations may be sent to St. Michael's Episcopal Church or The Brattleboro Retreat. To contribute to her memory book, send your memories, thoughts, or messages to the Rev. Sandy Daly, P.O. Box 189, Chesterfield, NH. 03443 or to [email protected].
• John T. Fletcher Jr., 97, of Pompano Beach, Fla., formerly of Bellows Falls. Died Nov. 15. Husband of the late Norma Beatrice Stocker Fletcher for 52 years. Father of William Fletcher and his wife, Renee, and the late Barbara Fletcher. Born in Somerville, Mass., the son of the late John T. Fletcher and Stella M. Balcom Fletcher, his family moved to Bellows Falls when he was a child and, in 1934, he graduated from Bellows Falls High School. He was also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business in 1939. Completing ROTC, he joined the Army Air Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. During World War II, he served in the Pacific Theater as a supply officer under General MacArthur. At war's end, he worked in the Pentagon, where he met his future wife. Moving back to Bellows Falls, he took over the family business, Fletcher's News, which he operated until 1997. While there he became a member of the United Church of Bellows Falls. For 20 years, he marketed and taught the Dale Carnegie Course. In 1999 he moved to Pompano Beach, Fla. and in 2001. he met Marjorie Andrews and they shared nine of their golden years together doing ballroom dancing and cruising all over the world. He was also a member of the Pompano Beach Elks Club and the John Knox Rotary Club. Memorial information: A memorial service will be held Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. in the John Knox Village Auditorium. Burial will follow in Acton, Mass. Donations to the American Heart Association or to the John Knox Village Health Center.
• Stephen James Reynolds, 52, of Brattleboro. Died Nov. 18 at Grace Cottage Hospital, following an extended illness. Husband of Carol (Ghazal) Reynolds for 17 years. Father of Katie and Rachel Reynolds. Brother of Bernard Reynolds Jr. of Newfane, Patricia Kondrat of Hinsdale, N.H., and Caroline Reynolds of Lakewood, Ill. Born in Brattleboro, the son of Bernard and Elsie (Dix) Reynolds, he graduated from Brattleboro Union High School with the Class of 1978. He had been employed since 1989 by the Town of Brattleboro, where he was a plant operator at the municipal water treatment facility on Pleasant Valley Road. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed hunting and fishing. He particularly took pleasure in time spent ice fishing with his daughters. He also greatly enjoyed walking in the woods foraging for mushrooms with family and friends. He loved to share his passion for nature with others. His life was centered on his family. He loved to spend time at home with his wife and two daughters, and he enjoyed getting together with his siblings and their families as well. Memorial information: A memorial service will be held on Sunday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. at the West Village Meetinghouse off of South Street in West Brattleboro. An informal gathering will follow the service. Donations may be made to a special college fund established for his two daughters - Stephen Reynolds Memorial Fund, in care of Lysa Wilder at Key Bank, 185 Main St., Brattleboro, VT 05301. Messages of condolence may be sent to Atamaniuk Funeral Home at www.atamaniuk.com.
• David Spring, 71, of Nebo, N.C., formerly of Dummerston. Died Nov. 11 after a long illness. Wife of Lisa Spring for 49 years. Father of Robert Spring of Newfane and Karen Johnson of Estes Park, Colo. Son of the late Robert and Madeline Spring of Englewood, N.J. Formerly from New Jersey, he worked 10 years for General Motors. In 1972, he and his family moved to Dummerston, where he worked for many years at Vermont National Bank and Chittenden Bank in Brattleboro, before retiring and moving to Estes Park for several years. Memorial information: A prayer service and reception was held at the family's home in Nebo, N.C. Donations to Hospice of McDowell County in Marion, N.C. or Hospice of Rutherford County in Forest City, N.C.
Births
• In Burlington (Fletcher Allen Health Care), Sept. 24, 2012, a son, Nathaniel Jack Umansky, to Lisa (Anderson) and Shawn Umansky of Hinesburg.
Awards
• The Now & Then Vehicle Club of Southern Vermont recently donated to Make A Wish Foundation of Vermont this year's proceeds from the raffles at its weekly cruise-ins at the Staples parking lot all through the spring and summer. Each cruise night for the past 10 years, the club has sold 50/50 raffle tickets. with 50 percent of the funds raised going to Make A Wish. Barbara Harris, board member and “wish granter” for Make-A-Wish, said the club has donated more than $10,000 over the past decade.