N. Adams native, Williams grad George LaMore has had distinguished career as an educator, minister i

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The Rev. Dr. George E. LaMore Jr. will present “Music for Persons with Short Attention Spans,” the Summer Organ Sounds concert for Friday, July 6, at noon in First United Methodist Church in North Adams. LaMore, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa has played first violin in the Southeast Symphony Orchestra for many years. This will be his ninth year performing in the Summer Organ Sounds series. LaMore is a native of North Adams and a professor at Iowa Wesleyan College. He and his wife, the former Jane Esther Blackburn of Lanesborough, come back to the Berkshires every year. They have a place in Lanesborough. His program Friday runs the gamut from unaccompanied plainsong chants through traditional church hymns, recognized musical classics, and even includes popular romantic songs. Dwight Killam will accompany some of the selections on piano and on the church’s historic three-manual E.M. Skinner pipe organ, which is the focus of the series. “I’m doing improvisations in the beginning of the program on some hymns. And when I say ‘improvisation,’ I mean the high-wire act without a net,” LaMore said. “I mean that, sure, I’ve tried a few improvisations before I get up there, but I try to do them ... in the moment — because that’s what improvisation used to be in music.” “Bach would ... have the audience suggest a theme, and then he’d take off on it. And I’m not about to do that, but it’s that kind of thing at the beginning. So it will be short and, I hope, sweet.” The concert is free, and is followed by a moderately priced lunch in the downstairs hall of the church. Braytonville roots LaMore was raised on Richview Avenue in the Braytonville section of North Adams. He went to Brayton School and graduated from Drury High School in 1949. His father, George Sr., was an electrician and was very well known in the Northern Berkshires. “In the height of the Depression when no one could afford to electrify their houses he did it for dirt cheap prices, so he was working all the time,” he said. George Jr. developed a love of music at a young age. “Being very poor ... we couldn’t afford a piano. My mother dearly wanted me to study the piano, but couldn’t afford one. But she did happen to own an old violin,” he said. “Byram Briggs was a very notable violinist in Northern Berkshire at that time and I would end up studying with him for 18 years. My mother used to clean houses during the Depression just to pay for my lessons.” He next studied with violinist Louis Virgil Bedard of Adams. LaMore received a general scholarship and went to Williams College, where he majored in philosophy and minored in music. He next went to Boston University school of theology, earned a degree in divinity and was ordained in the United Methodist Church. He received a fellowship and continued on for a doctorate in a cooperative program between Boston University and Harvard. He also studied at Oxford. Inspiring young people The main focus of LaMore’s efforts were to become a Methodist minister. He was pastor in Adams and Stamford, Vt. for nine years. “In those years an unusual number of young people decided to go into the ministry under my ministry. The reason was simple: I would take them around — I wouldn’t dare do it now — but I’d take them around on counseling situations,” LaMore said. “Some of them were fascinated by the fact that you were dealing with all kinds of people.” “They saw that that’s what the ministry consisted of and they were hooked. So I thought to myself, ‘Gee, if I were to work with young people full time, I wonder what would happen?’ ” he said. “And boy it has been magic. I’ve got a big family of ministers across the country, male and female, out of that ministry in Iowa.” LaMore went to Iowa 42 years ago to be chaplain and professor of religion and philosophy at Iowa Wesleyan College. This is an undergraduate college with an enrollment of about 1,000 in the southeast corner of the state, not far from the Mississippi River. The college is located in Mount Pleasant, a town about the size of Williamstown. He is still teaching full time: “I think that I’m just getting good at it to be honest with you,” he said. In 2000, donors gave $1 million to the college to establish the George Edward LaMore Jr. Endowed Chair of Religious Studies, the first such in the 158 years of the college. “It blew my mind completely,” he said. “Normally, persons who give that kind of money, name the chair for themselves.” Members of the family who made the main donation “were fascinated by my work, and named it for me, which was pretty generous of them,” he said. A national ministry Largely, LaMore’s ministry has been within the church, though it also extends well beyond that. “All of my professional career, I’ve had a kind of national ministry,” he said. “I do an enormous amount of lecturing for businesses, professional groups and so on across the country.” His topics include interpretation of contemporary culture, ethics, motivation, and business management styles. Numerous times he has been invited to speak at more than 100 commencements in a single year. “Summers, I have usually been preaching somewhere or other every Sunday, and it will be that way this summer.” One of the accomplishments he is very proud of originated back in 1968 at Iowa Wesleyan. “We started a volunteer program in which I managed to persuade them that service could be a part of education — should be a part of education,” he said. “At first they couldn’t see it. It didn’t look like readin’, ’ritin’ or ’rithmetic. But altruism is a pretty valuable quality. “So we got them to do it. It’s called Responsible Social Involvement,” he said. “And we became the first college in America to actually require a significant human service by either individuals or teams.” Students are then required to write about their service, and defend it almost like a doctoral dissertation. “Which meant that they could fall flat on their faces in the project, but if they made sense of their failure, they’d get an ‘A,’ ” he said. “Well, it’s been going strong ever since.” He noted that this program has been a model for other programs across the nation. LaMore has numerous hobbies, including flying airplanes and bicycling. What does he think about North Adams these days? “I’m amazed at what is happening,” he said. “I knew I was being raised in a mill town, with a mill town attitude. And that I should ever go to Williams out of that to me was spectacular and scary.” He said that though he had an appreciation of the natural beauty of the area when he was growing up, most people didn’t. He said residents are waking up to the fact of the natural beauty that surrounds them. “Interestingly enough, culture is pouring into the Arnold Print Work,” he said. “The size of MASS MoCA blows my mind.” “I see all the right stops being pulled now, I think, at last.” he said. “We’ve survived the mill town attitude. That was the thing I think most in our way.”
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Macksey, Shade Pledge Compassion, Accountability as City Leaders

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

 
Mayor Jennifer Macksey was sworn into a third term on Thursday; Councilor Ashley Shade was unanimously elected council president. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A new government took the reins at City Hall on New Year's Day, pledging to move North Adams forward with compassion and accountability.
 
"My focus, as your mayor, has been and will continue to be, one of restoring accountability, stability, strengthening city operations and making meaningful progress of long standing challenges," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey, entering her third term. "City government has worked to move from reaction to action, addressing deferred issues, while laying the foundation for future growth."
 
The swearing in on New Year's Day included the election of Ashley Shade as council president and Andrew Fitch as vice president. 
 
Shade, also entering her third term, reflected on leadership as it relates to small communities and North Adams in particularly.
 
"It is where I learned that community is not something you inherit. It is something you practice. You practice it when times are easy and you practice it even more when times are not," she said. "I have said before that the city needs to renew its focus on investing in our most important resource — this city, the people of North Adams. I believe that with my whole heart, because, yeah, buildings matter and roads matter and budgets matter, but people, people are where everything begins."
 
The city has not only a woman mayor and woman council president, but also a majority of women on the City Council for the first time in its history.
 
Ceremonies were held in Council Chambers on Thursday morning, with state Rep. John Barrett III and city department heads in attendance. Family and friends filled the seats to see the new council and School Committee members take their oaths. 
 
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