Wesley Towne Frost, 1926–2015

(Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel usually posts links to obituaries on other websites when available, but this was written expressly for the Squirrel by the widow and son of Mr. Frost.)

Longtime Lincoln resident Wesley Towne Frost died June 1, 2015 at Emerson Hospital in Concord at the age of 89 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Wes was born on March 4, 1926 in Norwich, Conn., and spent most of his childhood in Putnam, Conn. As a young man, he trapped coyotes and panned for gold in Alaska. Later, he logged in Vermont with cross-cut saws and chainsaws, riding stacks of logs out of the woods with a surfer’s balance while driving a team of work horses. He also took part in the back-to-the-land movement started by Scott and Helen Nearing in Jamaica, Vt. (Helen Nearing later wrote Living the Good Life about the community they founded in Jamaica.) Eventually, Wes bought 100 acres of land there.

While blacksmithing candlesticks at the American Youth Hostel headquarters in Northfield, Mass., and biking around New England, Wes met October (Toby) Cullum, whom he later wed. They had two sons, and they stayed happily married for the next sixty years.

In the 1960s, Wes went back to school while supporting his young family by working in a metallurgy lab, earning a BSEd, an MAT in history, and a CAGS in adult education at Boston University. He also travelled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and the Sudan on a summer Fulbright during this time. In 1964, he got a job as a teacher at the Pollard Junior High School in Needham, and the family moved to Lincoln. He taught there for 21 years, innovating programs in history, social studies, and anthropology.

Wes and Toby joined the Cambridge Friends Meeting (Quakers) during the early years in Lincoln. An organic gardener and nature lover, Wes became a founder of Lincoln’s recycling program. He was also active with the Democratic Town Committee and a member of librarian Jeanne Bracken’s “The Write Stuff” group for would-be writers.

Wes is survived by his wife, Toby (October Frost); his brother Quentin Frost (and wife Cecile); his sons Arlo Piers Frost (and wife Stephanie) and Rainer Lindon Cullum Frost (and wife Martha); and his grandchildren Brendan Whitney Frost, Riordan Piers Frost, Andrew Cullum Frost (and wife Jeanine, and their daughter, Wes’s great-granddaughter Arabella Dorthea Frost), Annette Shelden Frost, Katharine (Kate) Russell Frost, and Henry Dykema Frost.

A remembrance service celebrating Wes’s life will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 20 at the Pierce House at 17 Weston Road in Lincoln (click here for directions). Donations in Wes’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association and the Audubon Society.