Norman Rockwell Museum Welcomes New Board of Trustees Members

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STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Norman Rockwell Museum welcomed new members to its Board of Trustees and National Council during the museum’s annual meeting held on September 16. 

Robert Babcock, Peter Blum, Terry Burman, Marian Raser, and David Schwartz were elected as new trustees, starting this fall. New members for the National Council are Elizabeth Bender and William Zavarello, Douglas Clark and Ruth Ann McNeese, and Tucker Reed.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome such a talented group of new board and National Council members to Norman Rockwell Museum,” said Board Chairman Robert T. Horvath. “Their diverse talents and networks will help us continue to reach new audiences and advance the legacy of Norman Rockwell and American illustration art.”

In addition to Horvath, the museum’s Board of Trustees Officers include President Alice Carter, First Vice President Jamie Williamson, Treasurer John V. Frank, and Clerk Peter Williams. Brian Alberg, Alexander Brown, Anthony Consigli, Walter and Mary Jo Engels, William Hargreaves, and George and Valerie Kennedy were also re-elected to three-year terms.

 

New Trustees

Babcock has been the market president of central and western Massachusetts of TD Bank since December 2010 and is responsible for managing retail, commercial and small business banking and lending teams. He has more than 30 years of experience in commercial banking in Massachusetts. He joined TD Bank in 2001 and has served in a variety of commercial lending leadership roles, including Regional Vice President for Central Massachusetts. Babcock and his wife have five children and live in Northborough, Massachusetts where he is an active member of the community, serving as a board member for The Barton Center for Diabetes Education, Inc. and the Mohegan Council Boy Scouts of America. He also has volunteered for many years fundraising for a local group that supports the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Babcock is a graduate of Nichols College in Dudley, Mass.

 

Blum is a founding partner and president of Mayo Capital Partners, an equity investment management firm with $600 million of client assets under management since 2002. he worked for 22 years at Salomon Brothers as an equity trader and salesperson in the New York, London, and Boston offices, and was appointed managing director in charge of the equity business in Boston. In 1997 he left Salomon Brothers for GMO, a Boston-based investment management firm, as Managing Director and member of the Management Committee. Blum currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the World Peace Foundation and is also on the Board of the Concord Conservatory of Music. He served as a Trustee at Trinity College for ten years until 2012 and served as a board member at the Concord-Carlisle Community Chest. He graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. in Psychology in 1972 and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1976. Blum and his family live in Boston, and also have a summer home in Arlington, Vt., where Norman Rockwell was an occasional dinner guest of his grandparents.

Burman served as CEO of Signet Jewelers, Ltd., Hamilton, Bermuda  between 2001 and 2011. From 1995 and 2001 he served as Chairman and CEO of Signet’s U.S. division. Signet operates as the world’s largest specialty retail jeweler with 1,900 stores worldwide and an annual revenue of $3.5 billion in 2011. After graduating from The University of Southern California with his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1968, Mr. Burman served as lieutenant junior grade in the U.S. Navy until 1971. Upon leaving the service, he began his successful career as an industry-acclaimed retail executive with Roberts Department Stores in Los Angeles. Burman currently serves as chairman for the corporate board of Tuesday Morning and as a board member of Abercrombie and Fitch and Learning Care Group. He also serves as a board member of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where he was the former Chairman of the Board. He served as Chairman of the Board at Zale Corporation from 2013 to 2014. Burman has received many awards and recognitions during his distinguished career, including the American Gem Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2010) and the Marguerite Piazza Healing Rose Humanitarian Award (2009) for outstanding dedication to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He lives in Lenox, Mass.

Raser, of Pittsfield, Mass., is a Boston-area native who graduated from Emerson College majoring in communications. She is also a graduate of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and a third-generation jeweler who has been designing jewelry since childhood. Her jewelry has been featured in fashion shops, museums and jewelry shows all over the East Coast, from New England to Florida. Raser’s designs range from antique to contemporary, and sometimes a blend of both. She had the concession of estate and one of a kind jewelry in all six of the Cohoes fashion stores located in Virginia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and two in New York and traveled the world for many years to find these pieces. She is married to Marshall Raser, president of Carr Hardware & Supply Co. a six-store chain with locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They have one adult son, Barton Raser, who is co-owner of the hardware business.

Schwartz is a technology expert consulting to individuals and small businesses on technology needs. He formerly taught high school science and math in eastern Massachusetts and was also the staff trainer and a math teacher at Hillcrest Educational Centers in Lenox. His passions range from politics and reading to running and hiking with his dog. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he and Nan Thompson, the vice principal of the regional elementary school, are neighbors of the Museum in Stockbridge. Schwartz also has homes in New York and Florida. He is the son of late artist Sol Schwartz, whose work was previously exhibited at Norman Rockwell Museum.

 

New National Council Members

Bender and Zavarello reside in Akron, Ohio. Bender is a surgeon with several publications in medical journals, having recently been awarded "Best Doctor for Surgery" by Cleveland Magazine in 2012. Zavarello is a founding partner of his own law practice, and holds distinctions in Super Lawyers and Top Attorneys in Ohio. They are longtime members of the Cleveland Art Museum and the Bennington Museum in Vermont. 

Clark and McNees live in Saratoga, Calif., with their family. Clark is managing partner of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR). Since joining the firm in May 1993 as a litigator, he has focused primarily on securities litigation, representing defendants in more than 70 class and derivative actions. In addition to serving as managing partner of WSGR, Clark has also chaired the firm's Compensation Committee and served as a member of many other key committees, including the Policy Committee.

Reed resides in New York City. He is the President of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a not-for-profit local development corporation that serves as the primary champion for Downtown Brooklyn as a world-class business, cultural, educational, residential, and retail destination. Tucker is the grandson of the esteemed late illustrator, Walter Reed.


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EPA Lays Out Draft Plan for PCB Remediation in Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Ward 4 Councilor James Conant requested the meeting be held at Herberg Middle School as his ward will be most affected. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric have a preliminary plan to remediate polychlorinated biphenyls from the city's Rest of River stretch by 2032.

"We're going to implement the remedy, move on, and in five years we can be done with the majority of the issues in Pittsfield," Project Manager Dean Tagliaferro said during a hearing on Wednesday.

"The goal is to restore the (Housatonic) river, make the river an asset. Right now, it's a liability."

The PCB-polluted "Rest of River" stretches nearly 125 miles from the confluence of the East and West Branches of the river in Pittsfield to the end of Reach 16 just before Long Island Sound in Connecticut.  The city's five-mile reach, 5A, goes from the confluence to the wastewater treatment plant and includes river channels, banks, backwaters, and 325 acres of floodplains.

The event was held at Herberg Middle School, as Ward 4 Councilor James Conant wanted to ensure that the residents who will be most affected by the cleanup didn't have to travel far.

Conant emphasized that "nothing is set in actual stone" and it will not be solidified for many months.

In February 2020, the Rest of River settlement agreement that outlines the continued cleanup was signed by the U.S. EPA, GE, the state, the city of Pittsfield, the towns of Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, and Sheffield, and other interested parties.

Remediation has been in progress since the 1970s, including 27 cleanups. The remedy settled in 2020 includes the removal of one million cubic yards of contaminated sediment and floodplain soils, an 89 percent reduction of downstream transport of PCBs, an upland disposal facility located near Woods Pond (which has been contested by Southern Berkshire residents) as well as offsite disposal, and the removal of two dams.

The estimated cost is about $576 million and will take about 13 years to complete once construction begins.

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