obits

Dan Dimancescu, who has died age 81, came from a long line of storytellers, and throughout a long, well-lived, lively, and engaging eight decades, he excelled in inspiring people to go out into the world and to be curious explorers, not passive observers of life. He excelled in bringing people together from different countries, faiths, backgrounds, and ethnicities, and they in turn shared their countries, their thoughts, and their ways of looking at the world with others in productive engaging settings which culminated in worthwhile fusions of principles, business practices, conservation initiatives, and collaborations.

If ever an adage were to be applied to Dan’s life it would be one of his favorite sayings, “One thing leads to another.” This sentiment is reflected by the fact that when Dan sat down to write the first volume of his memoirs, he selected One Thing Leads To Another as the most suitable title. What he chose to state on the book’s back cover, which he self-published in the autumn of 2020, offers readers a small glimpse into how Dan viewed the course of his life, much of which had been spent exploring and navigating vast expanses of the world’s lands and seas: “This is a memoir of a young emigrant to the U.S. who applied to an Ivy League college simply on mistaken recognition of the name ‘Dartmouth.’ The few short years there and the answer to a surprisingly simple question ‘How much time do you waste every day?’ affected much else in his life on four continents: adventure, cartography, urban affairs, high-tech consulting, teaching ancient cultures, filmmaking, nature conservation, associating with billionaires and princes — and a return to his parents’ homeland: Romania. Punctuating his accounts are snapshots of events that shaped the post-WWII world.”

When pondering the distinct and vibrant chapters of Dan’s life, what stands out is that at no time was his curiosity and creativity constrained or hindered by what William Blake once described in his poem “London” as “mind-forg’d manacles.” Rather, Dan was always an expansive thinker who excelled in uniting and blending ideas, people, techniques, and organizational styles from different disciplines and cultures while at the same time introducing novel ways of approaching and understanding long-standing practices, institutions, and methods of teaching. He was a voracious reader who generously and succinctly even in his last days shared an ever-expanding wealth of ideas, information, and perspectives about an ever-changing world.

Dan was first and foremost a global citizen who strove to cultivate beneficial local, regional, and international collaborations when working on rewilding projects, co-authoring books, creating and producing original documentary films, and working on historic preservation projects. His office was always a wondrous center of activity teeming with the sounds of his favorite songs, photographs of National Geographic expeditions he had participated in, model ships he carefully and joyfully constructed, reference books in different languages which he adored returning to time and again to glean new insights, dozens of his own thoughtfully written books (some co-authored with leading experts in various disciplines and others self-published), scripts for documentary projects past, present, and future, and mementos of rewarding world travels nestled alongside childhood photos of his children Katie and Nick and childhood drawings and pieces they made in art classes over the years.

Dan made everyone he met and worked know that their opinions and contributions were worthy and equally valued. He existed in a world of possibilities where a seize-the-day spirit coupled with a willingness and the momentum to find novel ways of doing things won the day. He was not one to ruminate on how and why something could not be done or whether it should be questioned. When faced with challenges big and small he might choose to seek alternative opinions and options or he might propose, present, and enact an entirely new way of doing something.

Over the course of his life, he worked in many different professional roles and served on many nonprofit boards both in the U.S. and overseas. At the time of his death, he was the head of Kogainon Films, a documentary film production company that he and his son Nicholas (Nick) co-founded in 2008 when Nick was 23 years old. He was a producer intimately involved in the production of and the forthcoming debut of a documentary about the historic town of Concord and slavery, which will have its first screenings in Concord in early April 2025.

In the years before and after the birth of his two children, Dan was the founder and president of Technology and Strategy Group (TSG). He was a management consultant working Fortune 500 manufacturing and high-tech firms including Boeing, Procter & Gamble, Trane, and Digital Equipment. In the mid- to late 1970s when he and his wife Katherine were residing in Charlestown close to the Bunker Hill Monument, Dan commuted to and from his Cities Corp. company in the heart of Harvard Square, where his earlier company Cities, Inc. was previously based.

Dan was never one to simply sit idly by. He always had a fresh pad of paper and a pen close at hand for writing down intriguing thoughts and ideas and questions which came to mind in moments when he was basking in the sun in the garden, by a river, or a hillside in Romania. Ideas, words, new ways of envisioning and incorporating a rewilding project or the reintroduction of native species to an environment from which they had been long absent were always flowing through him.

Over the years, warm and wonderful lasting memories were made with family and friends as Dan delighted in sharing beautiful outdoor experiences on land and on the water in and around Hanover, N.H., which he first enjoyed when an undergraduate at Dartmouth College. As a high school student attending Hartford Public High School in Hartford, Conn., he spent countless hours bicycling around Connecticut, and this real-time training helped him become National Junior Sprint Racing (10th), Connecticut State Bicycling Champion (1960), and Eastern U.S. Sprint Racing Champion (1960).

There were invigorating and lasting memories made in all seasons in the quaint towns of Arlington, Vt., where Dan and his wife Katherine were married in 1976 and in nearby Dorset, Vt., where their early June wedding celebrations were unexpectedly showered with actual snowflakes, much to the delight and surprise of their wedding guests, who carried on merrily dancing and drinking with the newlyweds.

Before too long, more unexpected snowy memories were made when Dan and Katherine made the move from their fourth-floor walk-up apartment in Charlestown to a historic small town called Lincoln outside of Boston at exactly the same time that the infamous Blizzard of ’78 shut down vast swaths of the United States for days. Dan and Katherine made it safely to their new house in Lincoln but the moving truck with their belongings did not, so for the first few days in their new home, they found themselves camping out. When it was possible to travel in Harvard Square where they both worked, they had a delightful time catching up with friends who were enjoying cross-country skiing around Cambridge, and many epic snowy Lincoln and Cambridge photos were later shared with their children along with stories about the blizzard.

Lincoln was the backdrop for a multitude of wonderful outdoor experiences for Katie and Nick, who spent their childhood playing outdoors from sunup to sundown, whether it be sledding on a perfect sledding hill with Lincoln friends near a dairy farm in town, or out and about with a parent or trusted adult on one of many trails which crisscross Lincoln’s conservation land. During winter seasons when there was enough snow on the ground, sleigh rides were organized by Dan and Katherine for their family and friends with their children too.

Of all the places that Katie and Nick enjoyed being with their parents, two especially stand out: Marblehead, Massachusetts and Blue Hill, Maine. In Marblehead, countless weekends were spent running around Fort Sewall and dining in all seasons nearby at the Barnacle restaurant. Further from home in Blue Hill, summers spent with Katherine’s parents were enhanced by family hikes up Blue Hill Mountain with beloved collie dogs. Annual outings were made to the Blue Hill Fair, which inspired local author E.B. White to write Charlotte’s Web. There were extended family dinners at Eaton’s Lobster Pound, the Fourth of July parade in Brooklin, Maine, and trips to Bar Harbor and the iconic Jordan Pond House restaurant, though the highlight of being in Hancock County was being out on the water. Dan and Nick enjoyed getting out on the coastal waters around Blue Hill in Dan’s sea kayak, which he custom-made and used during a National Geographic expedition in the summer of 1985 to traverse a 500-mile route around the Korean islands from Mok’po to Pusan.

Overseas, worthwhile annual summer holidays were spent when Katie and Nick were young exploring the English, Welsh, and French countrysides during breaks in Dan’s overseas work schedules. A true travel highlight came in the form of a family holiday in June 1995 spent in England and Wales with family friends and their children, during which Dan became the expedition lead who organized and led a walk from the bed and breakfast where everyone was staying on trails to nearby Stonehenge. The breathtaking sight of truly ancient, mysterious, and awe-inspiring stones suddenly appearing on the horizon as the group approached on foot left indelible impressions.

Years later, Dan and Nick co-founded Kogainon Films,and committed themselves to chronicling and sharing poignant, informative, and soul-penetrating history and personal experiences from Romania’s history past. Each documentary presented its audience with remarkable stories of courage, valor, and personal sacrifices and also showcased how little is known my many about Romania’s long and rich history, which stretches back far earlier than the Roman Empire and encompassing so much more than Vlad the Impaler and Bram Stoker.

Peter Dan Dimancescu was born on March 22, 1943 in Maidenhead, England to Romanian parents, who at the time were raising their three older children in the English countryside in a household which alsi included a series of English spaniels. After his birth and subsequent baptism in London, Dan rarely went by his given first name of Peter and instead he answered to Dan. His parents raised their children in England for a period of years, having previously divided their family’s lives before the outbreak of the Second World War between homes in San Francisco, London, and Romania.

Dan’s father, Dimitri D. Dimancescu, was on the cusp of turning 47 when his youngest child, Dan, was born in the spring of 1943 outside of London. Dimitri and his brother both fought valiantly in the First World War as Romanian soldiers and Dimitri was instrumental in establishing the Boy Scouts in Romania. Dan’s mother Alexandra “Ze” (Radulescu) Dimancescu was in her early 30s when he was born; despite wartime deprivations and hardships, she and Dimitri did their utmost to impart a love and appreciation of Romania, its culture, and its history to their four children during the difficult and tumultuous war years when it was not possible to safely return to Romania to be with loved ones and to enjoy spending time in the home they made there after their marriage.

It may be said that early on Dan’s calling to be a navigator of life and the world around him, both for himself and others, revealed itself in some of his earliest childhood memories which he often shared with Katie and Nick. He clearly recalled being pushed in his pram by a British nanny along a country road near an ancient house in the English countryside where his family were residing. With crystal-clear clarity decades later, he recounted being in his pram and being actively engaged in studying the sky overhead, all while noting the sounds around him as well as actual conditions and contours of terrain of the country lane for future reference in his memory.

In early 1948 when Dan was five, his family bid farewell to England and moved to Marrakesh, Morocco, arriving there during the waning years of a period when the country was a French protectorate. Dan’s new life swiftly became marked by explorations of the souks in Marrakesh in the company of his older brothers Mihai, collecting and playing with marbles and his beloved Dinky toy cars, attending French schools run by nuns, family holidays to the Atlas Mountains and farther afield to Spain and Portugal, and nights spent tucked up in bed reading Tintin stories, copies of National Geographic magazine, and well-traveled and greatly loved vintage copies of the Illustrated London News, which had already been read and enjoyed by his father’s family for decades by the time of his birth.

All of these immersive literary adventures coupled with having lived in many different houses in two different countries by the age of 13 inadvertently prepared Dan for another huge life adventure which unfolded in 1956 when he and his brother Mihai sailed to the U.S. aboard a Yugoslavian freighter. They bid farewell their parents, who had to stay behind in Morocco to wait for their visas and official paperwork to come through so their family could be reunited in the U.S. Some of Dan’s happiest and most treasured memories were made after their arrival stateside, when he and Mihai lived with a beloved family friend in San Francisco in her Sea Cliff neighborhood house with its unobstructed breathtaking views of water, beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Life-long seeds of learning, interests, and curiosity were planted during the life-changing and transformative three-year period spent living in San Francisco. When he was not enjoying the company and taking in ideas and wisdom imparted by his parents’ family friends, Dan enjoyed activities such as skating at the now long-gone Sutro Baths.

William Shakespeare once wrote that “one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages,” and this is aptly characterizes Dan’s life and his many incredible adventures and ventures and his approach to life, for he did not believe that there was only one set career path for him; an instead he constantly fostered an expansive growth mindset and cultivated outreach opportunities, curiosity, exploration, and meaningful collaborations. When Dan was asked by his wife and daughter in his last year to describe how the course of his life had unfolded, he related the following: Born in England during WWII to Romania parents, Dan’s father was a decorated World War hero and career diplomat in the U.S. and the U.K. exiled to London during World War II. The post-war Communist takeover of Romania in December 1947 led the family to renewed exile in Marrakech, where they lived for eight years before emigrating to the U.S. in 1956.

He was awarded U.S. citizenship in 1961. Almost 45 years later, he was invited to have Romanian citizenship issued to him based on his family’s pre-Communist status. This allowed him to recover family properties (urban and rural) particularly on his maternal side whose boyar (landed aristocracy) ancestry traces back to the mid-1500s. This led to involvement in various Romanian NGOs, film and book production, and association with leading researchers of Romania culture and history. In 2005 he was designated Honorary Consul of Romania in Boston; later amended to Consul-General.

His education led him to Dartmouth College, graduate school at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Harvard/Tufts administered), and some years later, Harvard Business School. During his professional career, he served during sabbatical years as guest lecturer and/or titled faculty at Dartmouth’s engineering and business school, the Institute for Man & Technology at the University of Nantes (France), and Boston University’s business school. He was also a prolific author of more than twenty titles on technology policy, corporate management, Romanian history and culture as well as his latest on American Revolution-era slavery in Concord, published in 2025 as a companion book to an accompanying feature documentary he produced.

Most influential in shaping the course of his life was membership in Dartmouth’s Ledyard Canoe Club, founded in 1920 and named after John Ledyard, who enrolled at Dartmouth in 1772. Ledyard’s son departed the college to travel with Captain Cook on his third voyage and is known as the United States’ first genuine explorer. This inspired Dan to undertake four expeditions supported by National Geographic 1,700 miles by canoe on the Danube River (1964); traveling 1,000 miles by kayak along Japan’s Inland Sea and Pacific Coast (1966), hiking the 600-mile length of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains (1968), and doing 500 miles by kayak along South Korea’s island-dotted peninsula (1985).

Over subsequent years he followed a largely self-created professional life that spanned a number of disparate careers: freelance journalist for the Boston Globe covering Europe and Japan in the late 1960s; cartographer pioneering digital map drafting technology; urban planner influencing successful efforts to cancel inner-city highways in Boston; author/co-author of high tech semiconductor industry U.S. policy books; student of Japanese management know-how and consultant to Fortune 500 high-tech and manufacturing companies; and in the new millennium, co-founder of Kogainon Films.

Over the years he served on varied educational and nonprofit institutional boards, most recently the Foundation Conservation Carpathia (Romania), which focused on creating Europe’s largest nature park. Its internationally distinguished board includes Swiss-American billionaire Hansjoerg Wyss, known as the world’s largest donor to land conservation organizations.

When Sir Christopher Wren’s son chose an epitaph to grace the site of his father’s final resting in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, he chose these words, “Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice,” which means, “Reader, if you seek a monument, look around.” These timeless words resonate with Dan’s family for these words convey what it is like to be physically present in Romania taking in the country’s natural splendors, now-preserved and restored historic towns, villages, and buildings, and learning about the projects being undertaken by Romanian organizations Dan supported or helped establish. Dan’s life and legacy is embodied by Romania and it is there that his spirit has surely returned home.

Dan is survived by Katherine, his wife of 48 years, and their daughter Katie. His son Nick predeceased him in May 2011. He is also survived by his sister Sandra Kenny and brother Dr. Mihai Dimancescu. His brother Dimitri Dimancesco predeceased him, as did their parents Alexandra “Ze” and Dimitri D. Dimancescu and their maternal great-grandmother Greta (Bastea) Radulescu. Dan is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, and cousins. He proudly called Lincoln and Concord home for decades and leaves behind wonderful friends and esteemed colleagues in both communities.

In lieu of flowers, donations to honor Dan’s memory may be made to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. A celebration-of-life event is being planned for later this year. Burial will be private at Lincoln Cemetery. Arrangements are under the care of Concord Funeral Home, which provided this obituary. Click here to leave a note in Dan’s online guestbook.

Barbara Buchan died peacefully on November 10, 2024 in her 91st year.

Buchan — who was born in Cambridge England shortly after the forced emigration of her family from Germany prior to World War II due to their Jewish heritage — moved to the United States with her husband and young family of three in the mid-1960s, spending the first year in Concord and settling in Lincoln. In 2014, at age 80, she decided to swap out snow for sun and transition into The Terraces of Los Gatos community near her two California-based children and their families.

Barbara’s nature was to support causes that were meaningful to her and advocate for underserved communities, particularly children and families. To support this endeavor, she educated herself, earning a bachelor’s degree in medical/social work at the University of Edinburgh and a master’s and doctoral degree in early childhood education at Tufts University and Nova University, respectively.

She began her career as an almoner in London in the early 1960s (watch “Call the Midwife” for an idea of her work). She continued to support children and families throughout her career. In each community in which she lived, she was driven to originate educational and care resources. In Woodford, England, she started a cooperative nursery school with her good friend Dorothy Runnicles. Upon transitioning to Lincoln, she collaborated with Sally Mlavsky and other community parents to repurpose an old barn on Winter Street and establish the Barn Cooperative Nursery School (since moved to Concord).

Barbara continued to develop educational resources and curricula for elementary schools through the Educational Development Center. She then served as director of the Elm Park Early Education Center, located in Worcester, where amongst her many innovative accomplishments was the creation of a rooftop playground. She closed her career by supporting mothers recovering from addiction at The Institute for Health Recovery. While there she introduced an economical heating pad solution “Warm Socks” to ease the aches and pains of program participants. They were an imme

Barbara embraced many of the things that Lincoln and its environment offered — hosting horses, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and cats on her property, selling arts and crafts at the Old Town Hall Exchange, buying equipment at ski and skate sales, attending lectures at Bemis Hall and school productions at the Brooks School auditorium, ice skating by moonlight on Macone’s Pond and Pierce Pond, square dancing in the Smith School gym and Codman barn, swimming at the Codman pool and across Walden Pond into her 70s, and snowshoeing and tracking animals in the local woods.

Upon retirement in 2000, Barbara immersed herself in supporting environmental causes in Lincoln, including the Green Committee’s mission to lower energy consumption in homes and town, and the Lincoln Tick Task Force (read more here). She continued to support communities in need, including the Arghand Trust, for which she served as a board member supporting their founder Sarah Chayes. She also found immense satisfaction and joy participating in memoir-writing groups, first joining one in Lincoln and then, finding none in her new California community, starting one.

Barbara died peacefully on November 10, 2024 with a warm sock in her hand (see the description from one of her memoirs below). She is survived by her children Nick, Lindy and Lucy; their spouses Paola, Bob, and Steve; and five grandchildren (Cailin, Finian, Jason, Nicole and Isabella). Barbara was much loved by many, and will be greatly missed.

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Using odd socks as covers for heating pads

By Barbara Buchan

The back story: Years ago, I worked with women in recovery from substance abuse who had lots of aches and pains but little money. It occurred to me that we needed to offer an alternative to the use of Motrin or other medications prescribed by their doctors. The women in our group happened to mention that there were lots of odd socks lying around at the laundromat where they washed their clothes.

Somewhere else, I had read about making warming pads using seeds as a filler. So how about filling odd socks (must contain at least 80% cotton) with flaxseed, knotting the tops, and then putting them in the microwave for 1–2 minutes before applying them to sore spots? As an alternative to using the microwave in class, I brought in a Crock-Pot along with a sack of flaxseed and a scoop, and the residents brought in assorted cotton socks. They were a big hit with the residents at work. From that day on, the Crock-Pot filled with sock pads was available at every meeting. Subsequently, flaxseed pads have become a household necessity in my family.

Recipe

Socks: Must be at least 80% cotton (to ensure fibers don’t melt in the microwave or burn).

Flaxseed or grains of rice: Quantity needed will vary with the size/number of socks to fill. Do not overfill to avoid bulkiness and/or uneven heat. You may wish to experiment. (Supposedly, the oil in flaxseed retains heat longer than non-oily grains. However, rice grains seem to work very well.)

Directions:

1. (optional) Tie-dye socks.
2. Fill the sock with flaxseed or rice.
3. Tie a knot or stitch to close the end of the grain-filled sock.
4. Microwave for 1–2 minutes.

It is with great sadness that the family of Beverly Decker Reed of Lincoln announce her passing after a battle with cancer on September 19, 2024. She passed peacefully, holding the hands of her daughters and friends and surrounded by love.

Bev was a beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt, and friend. She had a ready smile and a great deal of love that she shared with so many of us. We loved her dearly while she was with us and miss her dearly now that she is not.

Bev was drawn to the challenge of finding ways to share opportunity and resources with people of all ages and from all over the world since she first set up a lemonade stand to collect donations for the city of Worcester after a tornado devastated the city in the 1950s. In a 40-year career she held senior positions at leading nonprofits in education, environment, health, and international development.

Bev’s work served her community and the world. She served as a first-grade and nursery school teacher, did admissions work at Williams College, and served in senior resource development roles at Williams College, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, and Pathfinder International.

Volunteer work has been a touchstone for Bev over the years. She proudly served on the Williamstown School Committee, was a deacon and lay leader in her church, a founder and board member of A Better Chance chapter in Williamstown, a volunteer for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, a member of the board of directors of the Women’s Fund of New Hampshire, a board member of Women’s Trust, and co-chair of her 50th reunion at Wheaton College.

Bev was a graduate of Wheaton College, received a Certificate of Management and Leadership from the Harvard University Extension School, and was certified in Reiki. Until a week of her death she enjoyed Zoom calls with college and high school friends.

She is survived by her loving husband Will Reed; her children and their spouses Becca Fasciano, Jennifer and Richard Wu, and Jeff and Nadine Stevens; her stepsons and their spouses Will and Eliza and Mark and Stephanie Reed. She is also survived by her two brothers and their spouses, Bruce Decker and Bob and Laurel Decker. Finally, she is survived by her cousins, friends, ten nieces and nephews, and her 14 grandchildren. As we mourn her departure, let us also celebrate her life and the countless moments of joy and laughter she shared with us all.

A service of remembrance will be held on Sunday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. at St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Lincoln. At Bev’s wishes, the service will be followed by a reception and agape feast at the church where friends and relatives will eat together and celebrate her life.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Dana Farber, Pathfinder International and the Alzheimer’s Association. Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. To share a memory or to offer a condolence in Bev’s online guestbook, click here.

Catherine Cooper Millard, 85, of Lincoln passed away peacefully, surrounded by family on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Catherine was born in Philadelphia on April 4, 1939. Her father, the Reverend Dr. Charles Muhlenberg Cooper, was president of the Ev. Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and her mother, Alta Peterson Cooper, was the daughter of Swedish immigrants. Catherine was a direct descendant of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who was integral to the founding of the first Lutheran church in the United States. Catherine attended Germantown Friends school, a private Quaker school that instilled in her a life-long love of learning. An intellectually advanced student, she attended Radcliffe College and married Donald Allan Millard, Jr. upon graduation in 1961.

A gifted pianist and musician, Catherine was devoted to her family, instilling a love of music in her children and sharing her talent with her many musical friends. In 1993, she joined the Jeannette Giguere Piano Workshop which met faithfully every month to play piano, attend concerts, and share life’s joy and sorrow. Her pianistic interpretation of the music of Federico Mompou was greatly admired and she loved the works of J.S. Bach, which soothed her during her final illness.

Her eldest child, Donnie, was autistic and nonverbal at a time when the syndrome was little understood and services were limited. Catherine was his fiercest advocate, ensuring that he received the educational support, vocational training, job placement, and services he needed for a fulfilling adult life. She continued to take him to weekly music lessons and include him in all family occasions and vacations to the beach until he passed away in 2023.

For several years, Catherine worked as a real estate agent in Concord, where she made many friends and enjoyed touring the beautiful homes in the area. She continued to feed her intellect through classes in business communication and negotiation at Radcliffe Seminars. When most of her friends were retiring, Catherine earned a paralegal degree from Babson College. Her first-hand experience with special-needs legal issues and academic success made her an excellent fit for a position at Rosenberg, Freedman and Lee, LLP, where she worked until retirement.

Catherine traveled extensively, delighting in the museums, architecture, scenery, cuisine, and music of many European cities including Ulm, Vienna, Munich, Venice, Bologna, Florence, London, and Rome. In 1973, she and Donald ventured to Dakar, Senegal for a total solar eclipse, yielding spectacular pictures for the family at home. During one visit to Milan she and her family serendipitously encountered Itzhak Perlman and calmly walked a half a block behind him on their way to his concert. In later years, Catherine and Donald visited Panama and Guatemala. Of the many places they traveled, Paris was a favorite and they hoped she would be able to visit one last time.

Catherine is survived by her husband of 63 years, Donald A. Millard, Jr.; her daughters, Ann Lindsay Clinton of Hull and Carol Cooper Millard of Lexington; her brother, Jeremy Cooper of Concord, N.H.; and her grandchildren, Nathan Lee Kaufman of Lexington, Alyse Jessica Clinton of Quincy, Charles Frederick Clinton of Philadelphia, and Miriam Davis Kaufman of Lexington.

Family and friends are all invited to gather for visiting hours on Monday, Oct. 7 from 4–7 p.m. at Dee Funeral Home (27 Bedford St., Concord). There will be no funeral services. Burial will be private at Lincoln Cemetery.  

In lieu of flowers, please make a charitable contribution in Catherine’s name. Autism Services Association Inc. or Historic Trappe Historical Society would be especially meaningful choices.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. To share a remembrance or to offer a condolence in Catherine’s online guestbook, click here.

Anne Cynthia (Mattana) Kafina, formerly of Lincoln, died on Sunday, September 22, 2024 at Waltham Crossings following a period of declining health. She was 97, and at the end of her long life, continued to fiercely value her independence.

She was happily married to the late Martin Kafina for 35 years until his passing.

Born on August 6, 1927, Anne was the daughter of the late Giacinto and Domittela Mattana. She grew up in the Bronx, and was awarded the title of Miss Coney Island. She lived on Second Street in Park Slope for 30 years.

Anne enjoyed playing golf and tennis, and admired her favorite baseball player, Joe DiMaggio. She loved the music stylings of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Annual vacations to Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, where she could be found boating and water-skiing, brought her special joy.

Anne was a dedicated volunteer at Emerson Hospital for 20 years. A selfless mother and excellent grandmother, she was regarded as the cornerstone of her family.

She leaves behind her devoted son, Dr. Martin J. Kafina and his wife Theresa of Lincoln; two grandsons, Dr. Martin D. Kafina and Christopher J. Kafina; and a nephew, Dr. Fred Podorf. Anne was preceded in death by her four siblings: Josephine, Jack, Rose, and Argia.

Family and friends will gather for Anne’s Funeral Mass on Saturday, September 28 at 11 a.m. in St. Joseph Church in Lincoln. Burial will follow at Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Emerson Health Foundation, 133 Old Road to Nine Acre Corner, Concord MA 01742 or Rheumatology Research Foundation, 2200 Lake Boulevard, Atlanta GA 30319.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. Click here to visit her online guestbook.

Kemon Peter Taschioglou passed away peacefully at home on August 31, 2024, just two days shy of his 96th birthday. Born to Greek immigrants Prothomos (Peter) Taschioglou and Despina Tossounoglou, Kemon grew up in a family duplex in Winthrop, where he developed lifelong friends, a love of sailing, and a deep appreciation for the ocean.

Kemon became an Eagle Scout and graduated from Winthrop High School in 1945. He then earned a degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1949 and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1951. While at MIT, he participated in ROTC and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. He developed an enduring love of physics and astronomy, which he shared with his family, often visiting the Boston Museum of Science planetarium and stargazing at their home near Mt. Misery.

In 1960, while working in sales at Polaroid, Kemon noticed a fetching intern from upstate New York named Rhoda Kyser. She accompanied him on ski trips and outings with Kemon’s bachelor friend group, “The Lazy 8.” These men and their eventual spouses (some of whom still reside in Lincoln) continued to ski, sail, and hike together along with their children, remaining close friends for the rest of their lives.

Kemon and Rhoda commenced their 63-year partnership on May 27, 1961, and moved from Cambridge to Lincoln in 1963. In 1964, Kemon joined Teradyne, where he managed the company’s marketing services for the next 20 years, advancing the industry’s use of automated testing equipment to boost production.

Kemon was widely known for his ongoing civic commitment to the Town of Lincoln, most notably as a Selectman (1970-1972) and a member of the Conservation Commission (1974-1981). He was instrumental in implementing the town’s long-term development plan. He also helped develop and implement the town’s highly innovative land conservation strategy of purchasing parcels from private landowners for town use. This practice fostered responsible development while preserving ample open space for hiking and sustainable recreation; many other towns have since copied this strategy.

Kemon remained actively engaged in his community well into his 80s. For multiple decades, he and Rhoda were intrepid front-row participants at Lincoln’s Annual Town Meetings. A longtime member of the First Parish in Lincoln, he served as a deacon and both attended and taught Sunday school classes, earning him their lifetime achievement award. Starting at age 75, Kemon served two terms as the Lincoln School Committee representative on the Minuteman Regional High School Committee (from 2003-2006 and again from 2012-2015).

Throughout his life, Kemon held an irrepressible enthusiasm to understand the world around him and was known for engaging friends and strangers with a remarkably inquisitive yet disarming warmth. To feed his insatiable curiosity, he amassed an extensive collection of books on a wide array of subjects, which would have crowded Rhoda out of their living room had Kemon not confined his library to one long floor-to-ceiling wall. Kemon’s persistent pursuit of pluralistic perspectives made him slow to judge and eager to build bridges among multiple, often conflicting, points of view; this eagerness only increased with his age.

Kemon was also excited to travel, adopt trends, and try new adventures. He was among the first in town to get a 10-speed bike to commute daily to work in his suit, rain or shine. A few years later, Kemon and Rhoda bought their daughter a quarterhorse when she was 12, which he happily took over caring for and riding when his daughter left for college.

Kemon was physically vigorous well into his 90s. He would regularly jog, swim, chop wood, canoe on the Sudbury River, and camp in the Appalachians with his family and friends. While riding “his” horse, he injured his back, which required surgery. He subsequently recovered and was able to continue the majority of his former activities, largely because he remained doggedly committed to his rehab exercises.

In addition to his wife Rhoda of Lincoln, Kemon is survived by his daughter Ellen Parsons and her husband John of Belvedere, Calif., and their daughter Dominique; his son Peter Taschioglou of Waltham; Peter’s children, Danielle and Alexander of Portland, Ore.; and his niece Althea Henrickson of Athens, Texas. He was predeceased by his brother Byron J. Taschioglou and nephew Byron Peters.

A celebration of Kemon’s life will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 3 p.m. at the First Parish in Lincoln. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the The Trustees of Reservations, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving natural and historical places for public enjoyment and conservation.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. The family invites you to share a favorite memory or to offer other messages or condolences on Kemon’s tribute wall.  

Carolyn Betts Johnston, age 82, of Kennett Square, Penn., and formerly of Lincoln, passed away on August 3, 2024 after an extended illness. Born 1942 in Morristown, N.J, she was the daughter of the late Walter and Hazel Jacobs Betts.

A graduate of Dickinson College, Carolyn developed a love for nature, animals, and in particular, miniature shelties; her enjoyment of art, bridge-playing, volunteering, and travel rounded out her many special qualities. She and her husband, Dr. David Johnston, lived on Farrar Pond Road from the late 1970s until 2013, when they moved to Pennsylvania (David is buried in Lincoln).

Carolyn developed many lifelong friendships wherever she went, sharing her talents with the canine community with dog-obedience training and care, along with giving of herself with her calligraphy skills. She shared her gifts with her community and with the treasured friendships she formed through the years. As a lifelong diabetic, Carolyn beat the odds and bore this disease with patience, determination, and grace.

A devoted wife, sister, aunt and cherished friend, Carolyn and her presence will be deeply missed. Carolyn is predeceased by her husband, Dr. David Johnston, and her stepson, Skip Johnston. She is also predeceased by her brothers, Roger (and his wife, Joan) and Richard. She is survived by her stepdaughter, Patti Johnston of Massachusetts, and cousins Alan Jacobs of Wales and Gregory Jacobs of Indiana. Two step-grandchildren, Jonathan Johnston of Oklahoma and Megan Johnston of Switzerland, also survive Carolyn. She also leaves nephews and their families: Stephen and Sandra Betts and their daughters Melissa and Nina, all of Clarks Summit, Penn.; David of Edwardsville, Penn., and Gregory of Scranton, Penn.; and her niece Heather of Tunkhannoc, Penn.

At Carolyn’s request, there was no viewing or service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Diabetes Association or the American Kennel Club.

This obituary was provided by the Longwood Funeral Home in Kennett Square, Penn. To leave a sympathy note, click here.