The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

14 Lincolnites to pedal in 40th Pan-Mass Challenge

On Aug. 3 and 4, more than 6,700 riders, including 14 from Lincoln, will pedal up to 192 miles in the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) with the goal of raising $60 million for cancer research and patient care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Cyclists from 43 states and 12 countries will convene in Massachusetts to participate in the PMC, taking on one of 12 routes that pass through 47 towns and range from 25 to 192 miles, designed to cater to all levels of cycling and fundraising ability. Riders range in age from 13 to 88 and include everyone from seasoned triathletes to weekend warriors. Many ride to honor a family member or friend who has battled cancer, while more than 950 riders and volunteers are cancer survivors or current patients themselves.

Participants are required to raise between $600 and $8,500, depending on their chosen route, though the average cyclist raises more than $8,825. If the PMC reaches its 2019 fundraising goal of $60 million, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, a cancer survivor and PMC rider, has committed to donate an additional $1 million to the cause.

One hundred percent of every rider-raised dollar is donated directly to Dana-Farber through the its fundraising arm, the Jimmy Fund, and the PMC is the institute’s largest single contributor, accounting for more than 55% of the Jimmy Fund’s annual revenue. In 2018, the PMC donated $56 million to Dana-Farber, bringing its 39-year contribution to more than $654 million.

Riders from Lincoln are listed below. To make a financial contribution to a rider or become a virtual rider, click here or call 800-WE-CYCLE. You can also connect with #PMC2019 and #PMC40 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

  • James Alden
  • Don Alden
  • Peter Blacklow
  • Mark Deck
  • Jack Fultz
  • Keith Gilbert
  • Richard Glanz
  • Erica Gonella
  • Weston Howland
  • Kim Mooney
  • Julia Parrillo
  • Dan Pereira
  • Kimberly Phillips
  • Tom Wilmot

Lincoln resident finally gets medal for WWII spy work — and she’s delighted

Patricia Warner reacts in surprise as she gets her medal on Memorial Day in Lincoln from Rep. Katherine Clark (left). (Photo courtesy Rep. Katherine Clark’s office)

By Alice Waugh

America recently observed the 75th anniversary of D-Day, but 98-year-old Lincoln resident Patricia Warner was serving the country as a wartime spy years before the invasion — and she was finally recognized for her efforts in May with a Congressional Gold Medal.

Warner had been married for only a few months when she learned that her husband, Robert Fowler, was killed in action at Guadalcanal while serving on the U.S.S. Duncan. Out of a sense of duty but also seeking a measure of revenge, the newly widowed Warner left her infant son (who never met his father) in the care of his grandparents and signed up with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. She traveled for two years as a spy during World War II, working in New York, Washington, London, and Madrid.

“I was devastated, of course, and I wanted to help the war effort as best I could,” Warner said in an interview with the Lincoln Squirrel. “As a widow, nobody seemed to want to take me on in America, so I went over on a troop ship to London.”

Although she was listed as a secretary in Spain, her real job was to communicate with the French underground to get downed American pilots out of the Nazi-occupied territories while also socializing and gathering intelligence from Nazi sympathizers in Franco’s Spain, which was neutral in the war.

“I’d be sent to watch people they thought were very iffy and giving secrets to the Germans,” said Warner, adding that she didn’t speak Spanish when she began. “I found out the flamenco dancers were all involved in German activities, so I signed up for flamenco lessons.”

“She was really beautiful. She could go to a cocktail party and get the ear of some high-ranking diplomat as well as staying in contact with those behind enemy lines,” her son Chris Warner said. “But she didn’t really talk about it that much — I just got impressions of going to bullfights and flamenco dancing. We got the romantic side of things.”

The only real danger Warner faced was not from the Germans, but from a black widow spider that bit her. She had to be hospitalized, but her fellow Americans made sure she didn’t suffer alone. “They thought if I were incoherent, there was no telling what I might reveal, so my friends asked if they could be with me in the hospital in case I said anything that I shouldn’t and give away any secrets,” she said.

OSS “mercy missions” at the end of World War II saved the lives of thousands of Allied prisoners of war. At its peak in late 1944, the agency employed almost 13,000 men and women; today, fewer than 100 are still living.

In December 2016, the OSS was collectively honored with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the United States (along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom), but Warner was unaware that she was eligible for the award. With the help of her son Chris, Rep. Katherine Clark’s office secured the award and surprised her with her own medal as she was surrounded by her family and friends during Lincoln’s Memorial Day observance in May.

Post-war career

After the war, Warner returned to New York and earned a B.A. from Barnard College in international relations in 1949. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 but turned it down to marry Charles Warner, a history professor, with whom she had five more children. Her daughter Cecily was diagnosed with anorexia around the time the family moved to Lincoln in 1972 and endured years of involuntary hospitalization and forced feedings.

Patricia Warner in her Todd Pond Road home. Behind her is Boston Herald article about her medal. (Photo by Alice Waugh)

Warner immersed herself in the issue, founding Anorexia Bulimia Care in 1978 (later the National Eating Disorders Association), which was named one of George H.W. Bush’s Thousand Points of Light in 1991. She later earned a master’s degree in independent studies (specializing in eating disorders) from Lesley College in 1985 at the age of 64. Just two years ago, Warner published Will You Love Me When I’m Fat?, an autobiography focusing on her family’s struggles with Cecily’s anorexia.

During her varied career, Warner was also involved in the civil rights movement, taking part in one of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, and was a painter and board member of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Warner’s 1939 high school yearbook entry was prescient, noting that her goal was to be a spy or the first female director of the FBI but that she was more likely to be a diarist like Samuel Pepys. In her recent book, she’s modest about her war exploits. “I like to think of myself in the OSS, skulking around darkened bars draped in mascara and allure, dropping truth serum into Nazi officers’ champagne. But I’m not sure I made any meaningful contribution to the war effort,” she wrote.

But others would beg to differ. “It was an incredible honor to celebrate Patricia and her fearless patriotism at the ceremony,” Clark said. “Patricia represents the best of American values: bravery in the face of injustice and an unrelenting commitment to our country’s democratic cause.”

Kids run for a good cause (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Dozens of families from the Birches School and the Waltham Boys & Girls Club dashed through the woods behind the school on Bedford Road earlier this month in the Run for Good, an event to build a foundation of healthy habits and connect kids with nature in their own backyard. The fundraiser for the Birches School and the Waltham Boys & Girls Club was cosponsored by Saucony. (Photo by Joshua Milne)

New outdoor artwork at deCordova

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum has unveiled several new outdoor works ranging from small-scale bronze pieces in Alice’s Garden to large-scale commissions on the park’s main lawns to two monumental pieces that will be installed by the community in July and August in collaboration with a visiting artist. All sculptures are on loan and temporary, allowing deCordova to offer a constantly evolving landscape of art and nature for visitors.

Four of the sculptures were installed in the spring and two will be installed in July and August. On view now:

David Nash, “Spiral” (2014)

Nash consciously invokes earth, water, fire, and wind when transforming his earlier wooden sculpture, as he floats them down a river, chars their surface, or leaves them in the elements for decades. His incorporation of bronze casting as part of this practice continues themes of change, decay, and alteration, especially as he melts and solders metal. As some of Nash’s early wooden works begin to decay naturally, bronze versions offer a method of preserving their forms for posterity, while not interfering in the original wooden objects’ physical conditions

Michelle Grabner, “Untitled” (2018)

“Untitled” is part of a series of cast bronze sculptures of worn, knitted, and crocheted blankets. It transposes fiber to bronze, plush to hard, droopy to erect, warm to cold, and functional item to display object. The humility of Untitled’s formlessness lends the work a sense of irony. By appropriating bronze for a subject as sentimental and quotidian as a used blanket, Grabner throws open the tradition of cast-bronze sculpture, raising questions about why we immortalize certain subjects and how we determine which artifacts are disposable. At deCordova, “Untitled” is featured among trees, shrubs, rocks, and illusionistic sculptures in Alice’s Garden that similarly evoke familiar forms and textures from everyday life.

PLATFORM 24: Wardell Milan, “Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow” (2013/2019) and B. Wurtz, “Kitchen Trees” (2018)
See “News acorns” in the Lincoln Squirrel (June 19, 2019). Also see the September 26 event with Milan below.

Coming up

Marren Hassinger, “Monument 3 (Standing Rectangle)” and “Monument 6 (Square)” (2018) — community installation on July 24–26 on the Entrance Lawn
Marren Hassinger’s “Monuments” envision a community coming together to create art with materials that surround us. Continuing her lifelong inquiry into the relationship of sculpture and nature, their installation requires volunteers to clean, braid, and insert branches within the wire structure of her large forms. The work will be completed in the park over the course of three days by visitors who sign up to volunteer in shifts (click here for details and registration). The artist will be on site to assist in the installation on July 26.   

PLATFORM 25: Leeza Meksin, “Turret Tops” (2019) — coming August 19 to the South Lawn

For “Turrets Tops,” an original outdoor commission, Leeza Meksin will create two life-sized replicas of deCordova’s iconic museum building turrets in the park. Draping these towering conical forms with vibrantly colored neoprene, Meksin combines textile patterns and ornamental architectural details to articulate connections between the fashions we use to cover our bodies and the dwellings we inhabit. The installation encourages visitors to recognize assumptions about clothing and gender, architecture and ornament that filter into our daily lives.

Also see the August 24 workshop with Meksin below.

Related programs

Neoprene workshop with artist Leeza Meksin
Saturday, Aug. 24, 2–5 p.m.
Join PLATFORM artist Leeza Meksin for an all-ages outdoor workshop exploring neoprene, the popular fabric used for scuba gear, shape wear, mouse pads, and much more. Practice new ways of testing your creativity with different fabrics and learn more about Meksin’s new “Turret Tops” installation. Free with admission or membership; register online here.

Picnic and conversation with Wardell Milan
Thursday, Sept. 26, 12–1 p.m.
Join artist Wardell Milan for a picnic and conversation in the park, where we will channel the pastoral energy from his billboard commission “Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Hill.” Learn about Milan’s process and inspirational sources, from the modernist photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Nature.” Please bring your own lunch. Free with admission or membership; register online here.

Girl Scouts hit benchmark for community success

Proudly showing off their colorful bench are (left to right) Girl Scouts Lucy Dwyer, Courtney Mitchell, Marielle Soluri, and Rebecca Lupkas.

Lincoln Girl Scout Troop 82742 has installed a pair of six-foot-long benches at the Lincoln Mall shopping area after building them as part of a Silver Award project. 

To earn the award, seventh-grade Girl Scouts Lucy Dwyer, Rebecca Lupkas, Courtney Mitchell, and Marielle Soluri adhered to a specific problem-solving regimen that includes identifying issues they care about, exploring the community to identify needs, finding areas where needs and cares overlap, and engaging stakeholders while developing a long term solution that is also sustainable. 

The benches, made of materials generously donated by Concord Lumber, meet a community need that gives students a place to eat without interfering with other shoppers. Over the course of nine months, the Girl Scouts interviewed students, shopkeepers, landlords, and town officials about problems, researched various solutions, reviewed alternatives with these audiences and responded to feedback

Lucy Dwyer and Courtney Mitchell work on building their Scout troop’s bench.

During the construction process, they learned how to choose materials and waterproofing treatment, transfer design specifications to materials, use a radial arm saw and drills, fasten materials, and apply finishes. The award requires the project to consume more than 50 hours of effort each, which was easily surpassed.

The troop installed the benches at Lincoln Station and are continuing to work with the Rural Land Foundation to add additional bins for trash, recycling, and possibly compost as well as signage for the bins, which was also an identified need.

— Submitted by Carolyn Dwyer and Tara Mitchell, leaders of Troop 82742

Codman Campout: an appreciation

By Ginger Reiner

Saturday night, June 15 — a full moon illuminates the barnyard and surrounding fields. Tents dot the landscape: in the community garden, on the grass in front of Barn B, and one right next to the lamb pen. A campfire is roaring, surrounded by farm friends singing (to the tune of “Country Road,” of course!):

Codman Road, take me home,
To the place, where I belong.
We’ve been thinkin’, that we love Lincoln,
Take me home, Codman Road

Further away, little flashlights flicker in and out as a massive game of flashlight hide-and-seek occupies most of the under-12 set. 

The Codman Campout has always been one of my favorite farm events. A low-key June dinner outside the barn, lots of kids playing lots of different games, a night under the stars. This year was made all the more special as we enjoyed Codman’s own beef, pork, and chicken for dinner. We ate farm-raised hamburgers, sausage, chicken drumsticks, hot dogs, and veggie sandwiches, plus brownies and s’mores for dessert!

Click on images below for larger versions and captions:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”114″ gal_title=”Codman campout 2019″]

(See story and photos from the 2012 Codman Campout)

The moon remained bright, but eventually the guitar playing wound down, all the hiders were found by the seekers, and the whole farm, animals and humans, conked out for the night. We were up with the animals the next morning for bagels, orange juice, and lots of coffee for the adults, and an early-morning hide and seek game began again almost immediately.

A huge thanks to the Codman Board and volunteers for organizing this year’s spectacular event, I’m already looking forward to next year, and brushing up on my campy Codman songs

Ginger Reiner is the treasurer for Codman Community Farms.

“New Horizon” at deCordova features art, music, food, and conversation

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum will host “Doug Aitken: New Horizon,” a nomadic day-long artwork installation, on Saturday, July 20.

“New Horizon” is a series of live events at Trustees properties across the state. From 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. at the deCordova, there will be art-making activities for all ages, a sculpture quest, and food and drink. From 5–9 p.m. (separate admission), guest speakers will address selected themes about the future of urbanization, transportation, the environment, art, and digital technology. As evening approaches, ticket holders will gather around the hot air balloon to watch as the reflective orb transforms into a generative light sculpture that responds to live musical performances.

The deCordova event will include offerings from a variety of food trucks and Notch Brewing Traveling Biergarten, and music by Julie Byrne, Juilanna Barwick, and Mary Lattimore. The evening conversation will focus on “The Future of Information” with Gideon Lichfield, editor-in-chief of MIT Technology Review, and Jeneé Osterheldt, Boston Globe culture writer. Confronted with fake news and information bubbles, how do traditional media companies become platforms for communities to address the challenges society faces in a more equitable and inclusive manner?

To visit the deCordova on July 20, tickets to Family Day or the evening happening will be required. Parking for both events will be off-site  at 1601 Trapelo Rd. in Waltham with shuttles running all day. Click here for tickets and shuttle information.

Letter to the editor: gratitude for Lincoln’s Pierce House

To the editor:

Sometimes, it is important to send a note of gratitude. Here is mine for today.

Many of us enjoy the generosity of those around us and those who came before. From time to time, that generosity should be publicly acknowledged. The Fourth of July approaches, we must thank all who have made this beloved Lincoln event possible. One aspect of our celebrations, our after-parade luncheon put on by the Boy Scouts, should remind of  the essential role its host, the Pierce House, plays in the life of our community.

In 1910, John H. Pierce, like several of his wealthy contemporaries, made a substantial gift to the town. He willed both his house on Weston Road and the surrounding 30 acres. Little could he have imagined  how well that gift would serve the town — how vibrant it would become and how essential to so much of our community life!

Since it was opened for public use decades ago,  it has welcomed us all to celebrate weddings, graduations, birthdays, and retirements, as well as to mourn passings. It also hosts many town events such as our First Day open house, where up to 500 of us have come together to welcome in the New Year in an all afternoon, all-ages event of food and music and conversation. The house also welcomes events for town organizations such as the Garden Club and others.

We have not only John Pierce and his family to thank for all this, but also the volunteer Pierce House Committees and professional house managers over the years. Many traditions of hospitality were introduced by Richard Silver and his wife Susan. And recently, Nancy Beach has continued and expanded on that legacy.

The house has thrived under their professional leadership, and the town has been the beneficiary.

It is especially remarkable  how well Pierce House has served the town, given it has done so on a shoestring budget.

While offerings to the community at low or no cost and community use has grown, the portion of the budget, financed by town funds, has not. And this, again, is due to the work of the Pierce House Committee and former manager Silver and current manager Beach. They have skillfully balanced the use of the house for non-resident events such as weddings, in such a way that those revenues offset much of the expense of running the house for our use. We are all beneficiaries of their efforts.

So, as we sit under the tent and enjoy our lunch this Fourth of July and look out over the beautiful grounds and park, think of John Pierce and all members of Pierce House Committee, past and present. And, we should also remember the work of house managers Richard Silver and Nancy Beach. If it were not for all of them, we would not have this gem, this wonderful asset serving us all in the heart of Lincoln. They all deserve a note of gratitude.

Sincerely,

Sara Mattes
71 Conant Rd., Lincoln

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Obituaries

Dorothy Cannistraro

Dorothy Cannistraro

Dorothy Ann (Moore) Cannistraro died on Tuesday, June 11, peacefully in her sleep at St. Patrick’s Manor in Framingham, where she had resided for six years. Dottie lived with deep faithfulness, good humor, and a commitment to sharing kindness with others.

Born in Framingham in 1934 and raised in Millis, Dottie enjoyed the company of a large extended family, including her parents Harold and Dorothy Moore and younger brother Louis Moore. Her strong will and determination gave her strength to buck the system and get the education she deserved in spite of her cerebral palsy. Her fighting spirit, coupled with unparalleled determination, made her an inspiration to those who had an opportunity to know her. Indeed, when Dottie graduated from Millis High School in 1953, long before the Americans with Disabilities Act or anything like it, no one who knew Dottie was surprised she accomplished that unlikely feat.

As a young adult, Dottie worked as a clerk librarian at the Millis school library. In the summer of 1962 she had the opportunity to attend Camp Freedom (now called Camp Jabberwocky) on Martha’s Vineyard. It was a fortuitous trip because it was there that she met Domenic Cannistraro. Dom and Dottie married in 1970. Their marriage was one of mutual love, respect, and cooperation. They made their home in Lincoln, where the sparkle in Dottie’s eye and her nurturing spirit made Dottie a favorite among neighborhood children, many of whom she cared for in her home-based childcare.

Dom and Dottie were faithful members of St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Lincoln for 34 years. A woman of deep faith, Dorothy was an active member of the Service League there. After moving to Framingham, Dom and Dottie joined St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in 2004. Much to their surprise and delight their daughter, the Rev. Julie Carson, became rector of their congregation in 2007.

Dorothy glowed with pride at the accomplishments of Julie, her son-in-law Phillip Carson, and grandchildren Natalie and Thomason Carson, all of Framingham. She also leaves a brother, Louis Moore, sisters-in-law who were more like sisters, and many nieces and nephews. Known as “Honey” to her extended family, it was a fitting nickname for someone as sweet and generous as Dottie. Dottie was preceded in death by her parents and beloved husband Domenic.

A service of thanksgiving for Dottie’s life will be held at St. Anne’s in the Fields Episcopal Church, 147 Concord Road in Lincoln, on Saturday, June 22, 2019 at 11:00 AM with interment of ashes to follow in the church memorial garden.

In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial donations be made to Camp Jabberwocky, 200 Greenwood Ave., Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.

(Obituary courtesy Concord Funeral Home)

Ernest Fisher

Ernest Fisher of Westwood, formerly of Milton and Lincoln on Friday, June 14, 2019. Husband of the late Doris (Riman) Fisher. Loving father of Candace Gustafson, Margo Fisher-Martin, Peter Fisher, Hynda Kleinman and the late Douglas and Jody Beth Fisher. Adored grandfather of Adam Gustafson, Amanda Greuter, Ali Martin, Dana Kleinman, Ruth Duff, Tobias and Tina Fisher. Great grandfather of Nicholas Fisher, Stephanie Fisher Levesque, Alex Fisher Levesque, Layla, Marley and Nora Gustafson, and Calder and Ava Duff. He was an Army veteran of World War II and a graduate of Harvard University’s class of 1943.

Services were held at the Levine Chapels in Brookline on June 17; burial was at the Beth El Cemetery in West Roxbury. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to Jody Beth Fisher Dean’s Discretionary Fund at Harvard College, c/o Alumni and Development Services, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (please make check payable to Harvard College with “Jody Beth Fisher Dean’s Discretionary Fund” on the memo line).

(Obituary courtesy Levine Chapels)

L-S to start school day 35 minutes later in 2020-21

Students at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School will be able to get another half an hour of sleep in the mornings starting in fall 2020.

The LSRHS and Sudbury School Committees voted unanimously on June 11 to change their school day start times, with the high school day set to begin at 8:25 a.m. instead of the current 7:50 a.m. Sudbury elementary and middle schools will start at 7:55 a.m. and 8:30 a.m, respectively. In the coming academic year, administrators will work on an implementation pan, including schedule revisions and setting school day end times.

“The vote is not an end — it’s really a beginning,” said Carole Kasper, a Lincoln member of the L-S School Committee and its Start Time Subcommittee.

The move is based on recent research showing that the circadian rhythms of children’s bodies shift as they enter adolescence around age 12, resulting in naturally later times for falling asleep and waking up. Teens have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m., meaning that the early start time results in chronic sleep deprivation and other resulting problems.

“Based on the experience of districts across Massachusetts and the country, we expect our students will benefit from this change. Across both districts, we expect middle and high school students will have improved cognition, physical and emotional health, and academic performance, as well as fewer injuries, risky and impulsive behaviors, and absenteeism and tardiness,” the subcommittee said in a May 29 presentation.

Experts present their data and arguments in a four-minute video that was shown at a June 10 public forum (the segment begins at the 6:28 mark). This and other videos came about as a result of the National Conference on Adolescent Sleep, Health, and School Start Times held in Washington in April 2017.

If the current schedule structure remains as is, the end of the high school day would move from the current 2:40 p.m. to 3:14 p.m. The current three-year teacher contract signed in 2018 included flexibility to change the start time as long as the school day length remains at six hours and 49 minutes.

The school day ending time will affect after-school activities including sports. L-S athletic teams play in the Dual County League (DCL). League members Acton-Boxborough, Concord-Carlisle, and Weston have already moved to later start times in the school day, and Wayland will do so in the next year. Sixteen other Massachusetts school districts have done the same.

The movement toward later start times in Sudbury and L-S began in 2015 at a tri-district school committee meeting. A 2017 report by the LSHRS Sleep and School Time Subcommittee consisting of school committee members, teachers, administrators, and parents recommended changing morning bus schedules and creating a new subcommittee to investigate the operational issues involved.