Board Biographies
Robin Allsop
Kit Binns
Kit Binns, a Dorchester resident since 1975, has lived in the same house on Jones Hill since 1979, where his three children grew up as genuine Dot Rats. By trade a technical writer in the software industry, Kit has been active in many Dorchester organizations over the years, including the Dorchester Community News, the Uphams Corner Charter School, the Jones Hill Association, the Friends of the Uphams Corner Library, and many local political campaigns. He holds an A.B. in history from Princeton and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Harvard.
Ruth Brown
Daniel Cushing
Paul J. DeLorey is a 25 yr. employee of Verizon, and has served as President and a long-time chorister-member of The Quincy Choral Society, Quincy. He also is Director of Art & Environment at St. Brendan Church, Dorchester, and he previously provided similar service at St. John & St. Josephs churches in Quincy (total 20 yrs.), enhancing liturgy with use of florals, lighting, water features, fabrics, carpentry and more. Paul also served as set dresser & decorator for the Company Theatre in Norwell (8 years), for over 40 shows. Born and raised in Dorchester, Paul has a keen respect and appreciation of history. A person with deep organizing, fund-raising, and decorating skills, Paul enjoys coming up with unique, almost impossible ideas, and making them work!
Sean Denniston was born in Boston and lives in the Codman Square area. He has worked in government for most of the past fifteen years and is currently at the Executive Office of Transportation as a Project Manager. Sean received his BA in history at Williams College, an MA in Modern History from Oxford University, and a JD from Boston College Law School. Sean is a member of several Dorchester organizations and currently involved in the Program for Dispute Resolution at University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Rosanne Foley is an ardent supporter of the Dorchester community. She has worked for DotWell since 2001, becoming Director of the Dorchester Environmental Health Coalition, a grassroots initiative of environmental health and justice organizing and DotWell partner, in 2003. Rosanne's prior jobs include the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, the City of Boston Police Department and Boston Parks Department, and the National Park Service. Some of Rosanne's recent activities include the Neponset River Restoration Citizen Advisory Committee, the Metropolitan Beaches Commission, the Fitness Committee of the Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness, the Dorchester Avenue Task Force, the Boston Urban Forest Coalition, the Lead Action Collaborative (steering committee), the Dorchester Historical Society (board), the Ashmont T Station Citizens Advisory Committee (co-chair), and the St Marks Area Main Street (former board, now committee member). She is a founding member of DotBike and of the Dorchester Arts Collaborative. Rosanne received a BA in history from Northeastern University, and a criminal justice degree from Curry College. Publications include The Dorchester Environmental Profile in 2003.
Jeffrey Gonyeau is a Senior Project Manager at Historic Boston Incorporated, a private, not-for-profit historic preservation organization. He is the steward of the HBI's historic properties-the Old Corner Bookstore Buildings and the Hayden Building-and has managed several renovation projects on HBI's own buildings as well as on other historic structures around Boston. He has coordinated the preparation of preservation and re-development feasibility studies for the Hotel Dartmouth in Dudley Square, the Roslindale MBTA Substation, and the upper floors of the Hayden Building. He also oversees HBI's historic preservation easement program and works with congregations participating in HBI's various religious properties initiatives, including the Steeples Project. A graduate of Hamilton College, he has master's degrees from Smith College and New York University, and resides in the Jones Hill neighborhood of Dorchester. He is active in several community development and preservation organizations, and is on the Board of Directors of St. Mark's Area Main Streets, Inc., where he is also co-chair of the Design Committee.
Hon. E. Sydney Hanlon
Stephen Hughes, who is a life-long resident of Dorchester, has been an educator for 33 years--for the last nine years he has been the Principal of Boston College High School. He is married to Claire (Kentley) Hughes for 32 years, and they have two children, Brendan and Kathleen. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cedar Grove Cemetery for the past three years
Janice R. Knight, is Branch librarian at the Codman Square Branch Library. Born and raised in Alabama, she earned a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Social work from Boston State University and a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. She has been a librarian with the Boston Public Library for over 20 years and over this span has worked in different branches and departments. Her work allows her to interact with people of all ages, answer questions, help people find the perfect book. She loves her work at the library because it gives her a sense of accomplishments. Beside the Libraries, her passions are family, friends and traveling.
Barbara Langis
Bill Loesch is an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ Congregational Branch. He has worked in the area for many years, -- with the Columbia Point Housing Community, at the Boston City Hospital as head chaplain and for the last 20 years with various community groups in Codman Square.
Karen MacNutt , Lt.C. Ret., J.D.
Attorney MacNutt is a life-long resident of Dorchester. She has a general practice law office in Randolph with a concentration in estate planning and elder law. She was graduated from Girls' Latin School; Univ. of MA; Munson Institute of Maritime History, Ct.; Boston University Law School; and the Command and General Staff School, USAR. In addition to the practice of law, Attorney MacNutt has been involved in numerous civic activities including being past president of: the New England Judge Advocate Association; the Girls' Latin School / Boston Latin Academy Association and Gun Owner's Action League; past board member on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Inspector General's Council, the Boston Finance Commission, the Massachusetts Trial Lawyers and the Association of the First Corps of Cadets Museum. She was Chief Marshal of the Dorchester Day Parade in 2000 and is still an active member of the Parade Committee. Currently Attorney MacNutt is the Chair of the Boston City Committee for the Repulican Party, a deacon at the First Baptits Church in Dorchester, and a director of AWARE. She is an active public speaker and journalist on topics of both legal and historical interest. She is the legal editor of Women and Guns Magazine, produced a 90 min. documentary on the histor of the 26th Infantry Division, and has authored, co-authored or edited a number of books on law, art history, self-defense, and most recently, a cook book of Dorchester recipes called Dot Delights.
Richard O'Mara was born in Boston and graduated from Boston Latin School in 1972 and went on to earn a BS at UMass Amherst in 1977 in Plant and SoilSciences. He has owned Cedarm Grove Gardens, Inc., from 1980 through the present. He is active in many Dorchester organizations include the Dorchester Board of Trade, Lower Mills Merchant Association, the Lower Mills Civic Association and the Dorchester Park Association. He loves history and thinks it can be a road map to current times and the future.
Vicki Rugo and her husband, Bob, have lived in the Ashmont Hill neighborhood of Dorchester since 1975. Active in the Ashmont Hill Association for many years; she currently serves on the AHA board and is editor of the Ashmont Outlook, the association's monthly newsletter. She also helped organize the Codman Square House Tour, which ran from 1997 to 2006. She has worked in marketing and public relations in both the public and private sectors and is currently parish administrator at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Milton.
Anne Parker Schmalz was raised in Wellesley, moved with her husband to New Haven Connecticut in 1962, and moved back to Boston, to Dorchester, in 2001. Her careers have included horticulture and nursing. Her father's great interest in genealogy spurred her own interest in local history, and she is pleased to be living within a mile of where some of her ancestors landed in 1630. Her father's family lived in Roxbury until 1900 or so and she and her husband, Bob, enjoyed the festivities in April, 2009, that traced the route of the cannons toward Dorchester Heights. She has been actively in improvements to the landscape at the Society's headquarters property.
Earl Taylor has been the President of the Dorchester Historical Society since 2002. He earned his Master's degree in Library Science from Simmons College and served as a rare book cataloger at the Boston Public Library and later at the American Antiquarian Society. In 1983 he became the Assistant Library of the John Carter Brown Library, then Director of Library Systems at Boston College. In 1987 he became self-employed in the mortgage industry. He is a collector of all items relating to the history of Dorchester, including post cards, maps, pewter, pottery, books and photographs. In 2005 his book on Dorchester post cards was published by Arcadia. He has been a Dorchester resident since 1979. He is an avid collector of books about Dorchester and Dorchester maps and artifacts. In addition to articles in the field of bibliography, he has published a book of Dorchester postcards of the early 20th century. Mr. Taylor created and maintains a website www.DorchesterAtheneum.org devoted to the history of Dorchester, and he sends an e-mail every weekday to hundreds of recipients containing the Dorchester Illustration of the Day with a description of the illustration and of its historical context.
Charles Tevnan is a life-long resident of Dorchester.
Emy Thomas
Prior to becoming a Board Member (2007-2008, 2008-2011) of the Dorchester Historical Society, Emy served on the Collections Committee cataloging with Larry Davidson. She is presently helping to enter the cataloging data into the computer and has helped with preparing the barn exhibit, the Dorchester Pottery exhibit and much more.
Emy has recently retired from 25 years as Supervisor of the Microbiology Department at MetroWest Medical Center, Natick, MA. She has been actively involved with the Northeast Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (NEB-ASM) serving as National Councilor to the ASM, President of NEB-ASM and most recently Archivist.
Caretakers:
Elisabeth Kershaw, William Clapp House
Peggy Mullen, Lemuel Clap House
Ellen Berkland, James Blake House
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