Mary Ann Beinecke, 87
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Mary Ann Beinecke, 87, of Waldoboro, Maine, formerly of Williamstown, died peacefully on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014.Born in Manitowoc, Wisc. on March 5, 1927, daughter of Julius E. and Olive Blumenstein Hamachek, she attended schools there. She also attended the University of California at Los Angeles and Connecticut College, studying art and botany, leaving college in 1947 when she married.
Mrs. Beinecke established Nantucket Looms around 1962, an outgrowth of her activity with the Nantucket Historical Trust in efforts to revitalize the island's economy while preserving its heritage. With manager Andy Oates, she trained a cadre of islanders in hand weaving and embroidery to produce the fine textiles used in the restoration of the historic Jared Coffin House. The Looms became a showplace for many high-quality crafts produced on-island. It was expanded into The Cloth Company of Nantucket with a store on Madison Avenue in New York, and had many important customers and commissions. It was later sold to Andy Oates and Bill Euler.
She also was the founder and director of the Nantucket School of Needlery on India Street, for which she created a correspondence course managed by her staff of embroidery teachers trained by the finest embroiderers from many countries. She wrote "Basic Needlery Stitches on Mesh Fabric," published by Dover, and assembled an important collection of rare books on textiles and decorative arts that is now at the Clark Art Institute.
When she moved to Williamstown, Mrs. Beinecke became very active in the redevelopment of North Adams, restoring several mill buildings and districts where Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts is now, and founding a guild system for crafts. She was president of the Hoosuck Community Resources Corp. in the 1970s and an adviser on the arts to Gov. Dukakis and Sen. Kennedy.
Full of curiosity about the world, she researched "vegetal" dying of yarn by boiling almost every plant in the Berkshires with different mordents to discover what colors they produced. She moved herself and her business in 1986 to mid-coast Maine, establishing a new textile company, Newavom, in a former chicken barn, where luxury products were made and sold and where she developed a line of yarns for weaving, knitting, and embroidery with 99 colors. Later, she moved to Waldoboro, where she continued her business as EPIC/Excellent Production in Craft.
"Mab," as she liked to be called, loved classical guitar, folk, and jazz music; knitting, gardening, and mah jongg; tennis, golf, skiing and riding when young; and the cooking of her Wisconsin German and Czech heritage. She explored many kinds of spiritual paths, was passionate about the environment, world and local politics, the importance of art of all kinds, and especially about color. Among many organizations, she was a member of American Farmland Trust, the Grange, Maine Organic Farming & Gardening Association, the Island Institute, and a life member of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Affectionately known as "Mims," she enjoyed the presence of many of her family this fall at the wedding of her oldest grandchild.
Marriage to her first husband, Herbert H. Hinrichs of Staten Island, a malt and hops broker, ended in divorce in 1959. They had lived in Summit and Short Hills, N.J., and had four children, Richard, Julie Ann, Robert and Louisa.
She and her husband, Walter Beinecke Jr. of Short Hills, married in 1960 and moved to Rye, N.Y., and then New York City, as well as having a summer and a winter home on Nantucket. Her fifth child, Walter Beinecke III, was born in 1963. They divorced in 1986.
She leaves three sons, Richard Beinecke of Arlington, Robert Hinrichs of Waldoboro and Walter Beinecke and his wife, Gina, of Manchester-By-The-Sea; two daughters, Julie Stackpole and her husband, Renny, of Thomaston, Maine, and Louisa Hamachek of Eugene, Ore.; eight grandchildren, Jennifer Stackpole Palmer and her husband, Charlie, Lorena Stackpole, Tilly Hamachek, Jat Hamachek, Emily Beinecke, Katrina Beinecke, Evan Beinecke and Hannah Beinecke, and her great-granddaughter, Muriel.
FUNERAL NOTICE - A celebration of Mrs. Beinecke's life will be held at a later date in the spring. Contributions in her memory may be made to Doctors Without Borders, Medomak Valley Land Trust-25 Friendship Road, Waldoboro, ME 04572 or the charity of the donor's choice. Hall Funeral Home of Thomaston, 78 Main St., Thomaston, Maine, is in charge of arrangements.