AMHERST, Lifelong Amherst resident Bruce G. Brown, 97, died December 13, 2013.  He was born in Amherst on January 15, 1916, the third child of Warren R. and Edna (Belliveau) Brown.  An entrepreneurial and adventurous young man, Bruce worked in tobacco and had a paper route, and at seventeen he and a friend drove across the country in a Ford Model A Touring Car.  After graduating from Amherst High School in 1934, he worked for several years in his father’s real estate and insurance agency.  He continued his adventures by canoeing the full lengths of the Connecticut River and the Hudson River. 

Bruce attended Boston University as an undergraduate and graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1941.  During World War II he served as a legal officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps, completing his service as a captain at Paine Field near Seattle, Washington.  There he met and married Marian S. Brown, a teacher.

Upon discharge from the service in 1946, Bruce returned to Amherst and began a general practice of law that he continued for more than thirty years.  His practice included a broad range of matters.  He served for many years as a trustee and general counsel of the Amherst Savings Bank.  Prior to his death he was the oldest member of the Amherst Rotary Club.

Bruce’s entrepreneurial interests extended beyond his legal career.  He acquired and managed commercial properties in downtown Amherst and woodlands surrounding his home of over fifty years on Bay Road. 

Bruce is survived by his wife of sixty-nine years, Marian S. Brown of Amherst; his daughter Margaret Shullaw and husband Steven Shullaw of Coralville, Iowa; his son Jeffery Brown and wife Debora Brown of Amherst; two granddaughters, Amy Cox and husband Shawn Gunst of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Katherine Platis and husband James Platis of Chicago, Illinois; three grandsons, Douglas Cox of Norman, Oklahoma, Peter Brown of New York City, New York and Jack Brown and wife Jessica Brown of Amherst.  He was predeceased by his brother Robert Brown and sister Alma Brown.

A burial service will be held at a later date. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

AMHERST, Don W. Elleman, age 79, died at his home in Amherst on December 8, 2013. Don was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Tom and Hope Elleman; he was the first of two siblings, now deceased—Peter Elleman and Melissa Elleman Paterson. Don received his Bachelor’s degree as well as his Master’s Degree in Business Administration at Marquette University. Following positions in the internal audit departments of Exxon Corporation, Enjay Chemical, Johnson Controls, and Clark Oil, Don was named Director of Internal Audit at W. W. Grainger Inc. of Lake Forest.

In 1970, Don married Barbara Koplein and in following Don’s career, the two lived in Denver, New York, Milwaukee, Baton Rouge, St. Louis, and Chicago. Don retired in 1999 and three years later the two moved to the Pioneer Valley. Don became a devoted member of the South Congregational Church in Amherst. Their passion for opera, theater, ballet, museums, and books often took them to New York City where they owned a time-share at the Manhattan Club. During their 43 years of marriage, travel was an important part of their lives both here in the United States as well as abroad. A 40-day cruise to Hawaii, the South Seas islands, New Zealand, and Australia in 2007 came to be called “our trip of a lifetime.”

The two supported education at both ends of the spectrum, resulting in the founding of the Don and Barbara Elleman Student Aid Endowment at Marquette University and in the advice and funding he provided to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art from its beginning—especially the establishment of the Barbara Elleman Research Library and its annual lecture series.

Don’s warm personality radiated extemporaneously throughout a room; his laughter, stories, joyous spirit, and love of repartee drew friends easily. He will be missed by so many. In addition to his wife, Don is survived by his niece Merri Millard and her son Danny, as well as by nephew Scott Elleman and niece Ada Elleman Gray and their children.

A Memorial Service honoring Don’s life will be held at the South Congregational Church, 1066 South East Street, Amherst on Saturday, January 25 at 2:00 P.M. In lieu of flowers, Memorials to the Don and Barbara Elleman Student Aid Fund at Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201 or to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 W. Bay Rd. Amherst, MA 01002. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

AMHERST, Don W. Elleman, age 79, died at his home in Amherst on December 8, 2013. Don was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Tom and Hope Elleman; he was the first of two siblings, now deceased—Peter Elleman and Melissa Elleman Paterson. Don received his Bachelor’s degree as well as his Master’s Degree in Business Administration at Marquette University. Following positions in the internal audit departments of Exxon Corporation, Enjay Chemical, Johnson Controls, and Clark Oil, Don was named Director of Internal Audit at W. W. Grainger Inc. of Lake Forest.

In 1970, Don married Barbara Koplein and in following Don’s career, the two lived in Denver, New York, Milwaukee, Baton Rouge, St. Louis, and Chicago. Don retired in 1999 and three years later the two moved to the Pioneer Valley. Don became a devoted member of the South Congregational Church in Amherst. Their passion for opera, theater, ballet, museums, and books often took them to New York City where they owned a time-share at the Manhattan Club. During their 43 years of marriage, travel was an important part of their lives both here in the United States as well as abroad. A 40-day cruise to Hawaii, the South Seas islands, New Zealand, and Australia in 2007 came to be called “our trip of a lifetime.”

The two supported education at both ends of the spectrum, resulting in the founding of the Don and Barbara Elleman Student Aid Endowment at Marquette University and in the advice and funding he provided to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art from its beginning—especially the establishment of the Barbara Elleman Research Library and its annual lecture series.

Don’s warm personality radiated extemporaneously throughout a room; his laughter, stories, joyous spirit, and love of repartee drew friends easily. He will be missed by so many. In addition to his wife, Don is survived by his niece Merri Millard and her son Danny, as well as by nephew Scott Elleman and niece Ada Elleman Gray and their children.

A Memorial Service honoring Don’s life will be held at the South Congregational Church, 1066 South East Street, Amherst on Saturday, January 25 at 2:00 P.M. In lieu of flowers, Memorials to the Don and Barbara Elleman Student Aid Fund at Marquette University, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201 or to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 W. Bay Rd. Amherst, MA 01002. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

HOLYOKE, Claudia F. Potter of Holyoke, MA and formerly, Amherst, MA died November 30, 2013 at the Loomis House Nursing Center in Holyoke, MA.  She was born August 9, 1921 in Warba, MN, daughter of Claude and Ethel (Watkins) Barnes. Following high school, in 1940 she graduated from the Duluth (MN) School of Beauty Culture. She taught at the school before relocating to Minneapolis where she worked as a beautician. Later, she moved to Washington, DC where she worked for the FBI during WWII. 

On August 16, 1947 she married Frank E. Potter in Silver Springs, MD. Early years of their marriage were spent in Silver Springs, College Station, TX and State College, PA as Mr. Potter pursued his doctorate and post-doctoral work. In 1955 they moved to Amherst, MA when Dr. Potter joined the University of Massachusetts faculty. 

Mrs. Potter enjoyed young children and she worked in local nursery schools and later in a program called “Tommy’s Visit to the Hospital”, at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital. She worked as a Red Cross volunteer for over a decade and was a member of the Amherst Woman’s Club. She also provided comfort and care in her home to her mother, Ethel Barnes, during the last ten years of her life and for her husband, Frank following a long illness. 

Survivors include her son, Calvin L. Potter and his wife, Anne of South Hadley, MA, her daughter Linda Quimby and husband, David of Walpole, NH.  Grandson, Andrew Potter and his wife Jocelyn of Hadley, MA, grandson Matthew Potter and his wife Andrea of Centerville, MA and grandson, Timothy Quimby of Walpole.  Great-grandchildren are Margaret, Nicholas and Elliott Potter. She was predeceased by her husband, Frank in 1997 and her sister Ruby DeGroot.

There will be no calling hours. A memorial service will be held at a later date.  In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Hospice. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

AMHERST, Longtime Amherst resident Sylvia Steele Torrey, 90, died Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, at the Hospice of the Fisher Home.  Mrs. Torrey was involved in local organizations and community activities for nearly 60 years and was the wife of Allen L. Torrey, Amherst’s first town manager, who died in March of this year.  In recent years the couple lived at Applewood of Amherst. 

Survivors include her three sons, David S. Torrey and his wife Katie M. Torrey of Amherst, Philip B. Torrey and wife Nancy G. Torrey of Amherst, and Allen S. Torrey and wife Kate Douglas Torrey of Chapel Hill, N.C.; a granddaughter, Sarah Mitrou and her husband Jeffrey Mitrou of Windham, N.H.; two grandsons, Alexis Torrey of Amherst and Nicholas Torrey and wife Abigail Dean of Carrboro, N.C.; three great-grandchildren, Anna Mitrou of Windham and James and Rose Torrey of Carrboro; and an uncle, William F. Baxter and his wife Jean W. Baxter of Gilmanton, N.H. Mrs. Torrey’s brother, Rodney R. Steele, died in 1954 while in military service. 

Sylvia Jean Steele was born Aug. 25, 1923 in Concord, N.H., the daughter of James F. and Marion B. Steele. She grew up in Weymouth, Mass., where her father was a high school teacher. After graduating from Weymouth High School in 1941 she entered the University of New Hampshire, majoring in English. 

Following the nation’s entry into World War II that December, she embarked on an accelerated college program that enabled her to graduate in three years. During the summer of 1942 she worked at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Mass., and immediately upon graduation from college she joined the Intelligence Branch of the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a civilian employee in Washington, D.C. 

There, she worked in cryptographic analysis at the Japanese Section of the Signal Corps’ Arlington Hall facility, one of the War Department’s two primary code-breaking operations in Washington. She worked until the end of the war and advanced to become a day-section supervisor. 

On Jan. 19, 1946, she married Lt. Allen Lovell Torrey, an Army Air Forces pilot, in Weymouth. The couple lived in Orono, Maine, Lancaster, N.H., and then Camden, Maine before coming to Amherst in 1954. 

Mrs. Torrey taught in preschool at the Munson Memorial Library in South Amherst and served as a substitute teacher in the Amherst public schools for many years. She was a member of the Amherst Women’s Club, the Travelers Club, the Crafty Ladies of the South Congregational Church and the Thursday Club of South Amherst. She was also a longtime volunteer with the Amherst Historical Society and Museum and had served as president of its Board of Trustees. In March 2013 she and her husband were honored with the Historical Society’s first Stephen J. Puffer Lifetime Achievement Award. 

She was also an avid sports fan and enjoyed playing tennis and golf, the latter well into her 80s.  She was devoted to her community, to her many friends, to her family and especially to her grandchildren. Gifts of remembrance may be made to the South Congregational Church, Amherst, where she and her husband were members for over half a century.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the South Congregational Church in South Amherst. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

AMHERST, Ryan Christopher Gamble, age 31, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013 of an asthma attack.  Born in Northampton, MA on Jan. 21, 1982 he was the son of Mary Lou Madigan and Henry Gamble.  Originally from Amherst he attended Amherst Public Schools at a young age and then graduated with his High School Diploma from BelchertownHigh School. 

Ryan leaves behind two children, Madison Pearl Gamble and DaSean Donovan Gamble.  Ryan also leaves behind 15 brothers and sisters Todd Palmisano and his wife Ansley Palmisano of Belchertown, Brandi Gamble-Lucas and her husband Sonny Lucas of Springfield, Brandon Gamble, Adam Gamble, Danny Rodriguez and Mandi Hawkins of Belchertown, Valerie Gamble, Daryl Gamble, Keith Gamble, and Kim Gamble  of Holyoke, Kevin Gamble and his wife Linda Gamble of Colorodo, Ava Ward and her husband Jim Ward of Springfield, Shelda Lavalle and her husband Carl Lavalle of Holyoke, Kim Burell of Pennsylvania and Sherri Oconnor and her husband.

He leaves behind a very special niece and nephew Sierra Gamble and Tawreak Gamble Eddington, as well as several other nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, cousins and friends that he loved.

Ryan was employed at the Spokes in Amherst as a bouncer and he also worked construction on the side.  Ryan was also certified as a Welder.  He enjoyed being around his two beautiful children and loved them with everything he had.  Ryan had been a volunteer at the ROCA program in Springfield where he mentored young youth.

A graveside service will be held on Monday, Dec. 2, at 10:00 a.m. in St. Brigid’s Cemetery, Hadley. Calling hours will be Sunday, Dec. 1, from 3 – 6 p.m. at the Douglass Funeral Service, Amherst. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

Born to Roy Avery Porter and Bertha Thomas Porter on a farm in Elba, one of the tiniest rural communities (pop. 500) in western New York state, David distinguished himself in sports and scholarship at Elba Central High School and Hamilton College before traveling as a young man to teach as Head of English Department in the Lycee at Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey and later making a career of international prominence as a distinguished academic in Arts and Letters.  He was known worldwide as a leading scholar of Emily Dickinson, joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, where he taught literature courses to generations of students.

For decades David Porter was closely involved with the Dickinson Homestead, and he organized the first Emily Dickinson International Symposium in 1980, leading to the establishment of the Emily Dickinson International Society that thrives today.  He also organized the “legendary” 1986 Centennial Celebration of Dickinson and delivered the keynote speech, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.

In 1957, David married Rosalie Pedalino of Orange, NJ.  They lived in Istanbul, then moved to the US where he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester before locating in Amherst in 1962, where they raised their three sons.  Porter joined the English Department faculty where he served until retirement. He published three very highly regarded scholarly works: “The Art of Emily Dickinson’s Early Poetry” (1966), “Emerson and Literary Change” (1978) and “Dickinson: The Modern Idiom” (1981), all published by Harvard University Press, as well as many articles of literary criticism.  US Poet Laureate and Amherst College professor Richard Wilbur stated that Porter’s writing “will force a reconsideration of Emily Dickinson, and it is so well argued and so full of brilliant analysis as to be largely incontrovertible.”

With Amherst as a home base, the Porters have also maintained residences in Nantucket Island, MA and Singer Island, FL for many years.  David Porter’s scholarship afforded opportunities to lecture widely outside the US under the auspices of the US State Department. He was awarded Fulbright Lectureships (twice), a Guggenheim Fellowship, a residency as Senior Research Fellow at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and was a Resident Scholar at the Rockefeller Research Institute at Bellagio, Italy.  During his career, Porter taught at the University of Catania (Sicily), Keele University and the University of Kent (both England).  He received the Faculty Award for Distinguished Research and Scholarship at UMass in 1986, and an Honorary Doctorate at Hamilton College, his alma mater, where he delivered the 1992 commencement address.

Dickinson scholar and longtime friend Polly Longsworth said of David, “But for you, I would not know Dickinson… without your books I couldn’t begin to understand her mind.”  Although he traveled the world as a lover of arts – opera, museums and galleries – he dearly loved the town of Amherst, which he called “the Center of Wisdom.” One of David’s happy accomplishments was to welcome the US Postmaster General to Amherst on August 28, 1971 for a ceremony at Amherst College’s Johnson Chapel to commemorate the first day issue of a new Emily Dickinson 8-cent stamp.  Porter spoke before the Postmaster, noting that Emily had referred in her poetry to 17 instances of a letter being sent, but only 6 times to a letter being successfully delivered or received.

Notwithstanding his crash-landing a small aircraft on the family farm at age 15, Porter served in the Naval Air Corps in PensacolaFL and later in the Army 101^st Airborne Division “Screaming Eagles” at Fort Jackson, SC. 

In Professor Porter’s efforts to invigorate the minds of others, he never neglected to touch their hearts.  David loved most to do things with and for his family, and to encourage them to their fullest potential in their productive and creative pursuits.  He was a dedicated and loving husband, a caring, supportive father and a devoted, inspiring grandfather.  He is survived by his sister Margery Porter Philipp of Amelia Island, FL.  Along with his devoted wife of 56 years Rosalie Pedalino Porter, Ed.D., he leaves his children and their partners Thomas (Lisa Perlbinder), David (Sally Cooney) and Stephen (Edward Lee), and grandchildren David Gamliel, Carley Porter, Addison Gamliel, Emily Porter and Finn Cooney Porter.

A memorial service is planned for 4:00pm, Saturday December 7 at the South Congregational Church in South Amherst.  Donations in David Thomas Porter’s memory and in honor of his work may be made to the Emily Dickinson Museum, 280 Main Street, Amherst, MA01002. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.