The Lincoln Squirrel calendar listing for Galentines’ Day Paint Night on Friday, Feb. 28 had the wrong title — it’s actually called Date Night Paint Night — and an incorrect registration link. Click here for more information and registration.
Budget request for fiscal 2026 up by 7.9%
The Finance Committee is proposing a budget of $53.2 million for fiscal 2026, an increase of 7.9%. Residents will vote on the budget and other matters at Annual Town Meeting on March 29.
Property tax revenue is expected to rise from $33.80 million to $34.69 million, and local receipts (motor vehicle excise taxes, service and permit fees, etc.) are projected to go up by 67% ($2.33 million to $3.90 million).
Expenditures will remain fairly stable, with one major exception: the FinCom plans to add $4.07 million to the stabilization fund, whereas it did not allocate anything for that purpose in fiscal 2025. This allocation will help restore much of the $4.75 million that was used last year to reduce the amount that will be borrowed for construction of the community center. Capital expenditures sought include $1.40 million for Community Preservation Act projects and $1.05 for Capital Committee requests (see tables below). Details on the proposed budget can be found beginning on page 1 of the PDF (browser page 8) of the Financial Report and Warrant.
The Finance Committee will host a virtual Q&A session on the proposed FY26 town budget on Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30pm (Zoom link here; meeting ID is 849 2072 7318, password is fincom). To keep Town Meeting as short and focused as possible, the committee hopes to address comments and questions in this virtual Q&A session before the in-person gathering. Click here to see a video of the February 25 budget presentation.
Click on the charts below to see larger versions.
Proposed Town of Lincoln budget — fiscal 2026
Capital expenditures
Community Preservation Act expenditures
News acorns
First Parish talent show on Saturday
The First Parish in Lincoln will hold its second annual talent on Saturday, March 1 at 7:00pm in the stone church with diverse acts including a three-minute musical rendition of the Wizard of Oz, a yo-yo demonstration, the Cars’ “Moving in Stereo,” a band playing Jack Johnson’s “Monsoon,” jazz piano, a Nina Simone song, poetry, and classical flute, piano and clarinet pieces, and more. Free admission and BYOB and snacks. Doors open at 6:30pm.
History Day judges sought
Lincoln Middle School Principal Jason Peledge is looking for volunteers to serve as a National History Day judge for upcoming regional competitions. Lincoln School students will be participating at the Central West contest in Leicester on Saturday, March 8 but there are also events in Foxborough and Stoneham that need judges. You don’t need to have a lot of historical knowledge; the goal is to have people who are interested in learning from kids and being willing to support them with constructive feedback. Commitment is roughly 10 hours total if you review papers or websites ahead of time, or roughly six hours if you judge another category the day of the contest. Questions? Contact Peledge (who has been both a History Day advisor an judge) at jpeledge@lincnet.org.
Tom Hagerty at next LOMA
Tom Hagerty will be the headliner at the next Lincoln Open Mic Acoustic (LOMA) on Monday, March 10 from 7–10 p.m. in Bemis Hall. See his spontaneous cover of Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” starting at 0:40 in this video, recorded live at Sally O’Brien in Somerville. LOMA is a monthly open mike night event with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups playing acoustic-style. Come and perform (contact loma3re@gmail.com to sign up) or just come listen to acoustic music and spoken word. Free admission.
Film: “The Drive to Sing”
The St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields choir will host a screening of “The Drive to Sing,” a film that explores how choirs thrived during the pandemic, on Friday, March 14 at 7:30pm. Popcorn provided; bring your own beverages.
Trivia night fundraiser for school trip
The Lincoln School is restarting its traditional trip to Washington, D.C., for its graduating eighth-graders. To help offset $10,000 in costs, students and parents are organizing several community events starting with a trivia night at the Tack Room on Sunday, March 16 from 7:00-9:00pm. Come as a team of up to six or ready to join one. Trivia-goers also get a first look at items for the group’s online auction. Tickets ($45 each) are limited; purchase here. Questions? Contact Jason at jmclure@yahoo.com.
Call for COA&HS volunteers
Volunteers play a vital role in the success of many programs at the Council on Aging & Human Services, which is seeking individuals of all backgrounds to help with a range of positions.
Some of the volunteer roles include:
- Presenters and facilitators — Share your skills, interests, or expertise by leading workshops, discussions, or presentations.
- Drivers — Help transport elders to medical appointments, shopping trips, and other community events.
- Senior Dining volunteers — Assist with meal setup, serving, and cleanup at Friday Senior Dining events.
Additional roles are available for those interested in providing support in other areas, including computer tutoring, gardening help, and more. For more information or to sign up, contact Carlee Castetter at 781-259-8811 or castetterc@lincolntown.org.
Discount and rebate on rain barrels offered
The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and Conservation Department have set up a rain barrel purchasing program with the Great American Rain Barrel Company. Purchase on or before March 23 and pick up at the Pierce House on April 4. Barrels are offered at a discounted rate of $89, but the Lincoln Water Department will also offer a $50 rebate on rain barrel purchases (they’ll update their website with further information shortly). Click here for more information about the program.
Legal notice: Historic District Commission
Lincoln Historic District Commission
The Historic District Commission will hold a virtual online public hearing at 7:30pm on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, to consider the application of 68 Conant Rd., M/P 168-1-0, to replace several windows and add a new one. Anyone wishing to be heard on this matter should be present at the designated time and place.
For previous legal notices and details on how to submit a legal notice to the Lincoln Squirrel, click here.
My Turn: Lepage asks for votes for School Committee
By Ken Lepage
My name is Ken Lepage and I am a candidate for the open position on the Lincoln K-8 School Committee. Our family moved to Lincoln in 2021 and we have developed a deep attachment to this town that has made me desire to make a more significant contribution to our community. We have a son, Ian, who will be starting kindergarten in the Lincoln Public Schools next year, and having a role in helping to shape the goals and policies of the schools in order to continue to provide excellent and equitable education for Lincoln’s students is of great interest to me.
I am a lawyer and currently serve as general counsel, chief compliance officer, and chief sustainability officer for Watts Water Technologies, Inc. based in North Andover. I have worked at Watts for over 21 years; during that time, I have also twice served as chief human resources officer in addition to my other roles. Watts is a global manufacturer of plumbing, heating, and water quality products. Prior to joining Watts, I was with the law firm of Hale and Dorr LLP (now known as WilmerHale) in Boston, where I practiced corporate and securities law.
At Watts, I regularly provide guidance to and interact with our board of directors, and I am familiar with the distinctions between the role of management, such as a school superintendent, and the role of a governing board, such as the School Committee, and I respect that distinction. I have reviewed the recently adopted School Committee goals for 2024-2025 and am supportive of those goals, and I appreciate that they are clear, achievable, and trackable. I am collegial and a team player, and I believe that to be most effective and do our best work, that the members of the School Committee should support each other and work together for the common good of Lincoln’s students and families. I am respectful of the opinions of others and do not believe that differences of opinion should be taken personally.
Finally, as a Lincoln resident, I am mindful that the school budget takes up a significant portion of the taxes we all pay, and that it is important to balance maintaining an excellent educational curriculum with the costs we ask our taxpayers to bear.
I hope this has helped you get a sense of my potential contributions to the School Committee. I ask for your support in the upcoming town election.
Ken Lepage lives at 148 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln.
“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
News acorns
Special ed panel on March 6
Concord & Concord-Carlisle SEPAC, along with Lincoln SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council), presents “Literacy Liberates” on Thursday, March 6 at 6:30pm at Concord-Carlisle High School. Kareem Weaver, an advocate for literacy as a civil right, will be the keynote speaker. He will be joined by panelists Milly Arbaje-Thomas (CEO of METCO), Eavan Miles Mason (CEO of KidCenterED), and Katherine Tarca, Director of Humanities & Literacy for the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Doors open for meet and greet at 5:30pm. Child care will be provided. Registration required; click here for more information and to register.
T-Ball registration now open
Youth baseball in Lincoln starts with T-Ball, which is open to boys and girls currently in kindergarten and those starting kindergarten in the fall. Children that live in Lincoln or who go to school in Lincoln are eligible. Players meet on the Smith School fields in Lincoln each Saturday morning from 10:00–11:30am. The basics of baseball are taught, and each week features a practice followed by a game. Opening day is April 26 and the season runs through June 14. L-S Youth Baseball registration and more information are available here, or contact Chris Andrysiak at chris.andrysiak@gmail.com or Charlie Knutson at charlie@knutsonmail.com.
Dark skies talk by Jane Slade
The Lincoln Dark Skies Committee and the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust are co-sponsoring a lecture on Saturday, March 8 from 3-5pm at Bemis Hall on the importance of understanding the many ways in which light impacts our environment, human health, wildlife, and biodiversity. Jane Slade is a lighting educator and researcher and the host of the podcast “Starving for Darkness,” which advocates for sustainable lighting practices. The Town of Lincoln is preparing to update its bylaws and regulations, and this talk will explore considerations of light color, intensity, and direction, and will offer information on availability of proper lighting equipment and use of timers, dimmers and motion activation devices.
Apply for a Lincoln Garden Club grant
The Lincoln Garden Club is offering project grants and its annual Gabrielle Brenninkmeyer Award. Click here to see projects that have won grant funding since 2005. Grant applications must be sponsored by a Lincoln Garden Club member; collaboration on the proposal with other community groups is welcomed and encouraged. Click here to apply. The $500 Brenninkmeyer award (which does not require partnering with a club member) supports projects that further the club’s twofold mission of providing community service to the town of Lincoln and giving members the opportunity to enhance and share their knowledge of such garden-related topics as horticulture, design, conservation, and beautification. The award is open to any Lincoln resident or Lincoln Public Schools student. Click here to apply. The application deadline for both awards is March 31.
Coming up at the library
Seed Packing Party
Monday, March 3, 6:30-8:00pm, Tarbell Room
Help the library prepare our upcoming seed library. No registration required.
Lincoln250 Revolutionary War Writing: Cursive Workshop for Kids
Tuesday, March 6, 4:00-5:00pm, Tarbell Room
Write like it’s 1775! In this three-week workshop, children in grades 4-6 will learn the different formations for cursive lower- and uppercase letters, practice writing a variety of words (including their names!), and look at historical documents from the Revolutionary War era. Registration required.
Needle Felted Bee: Pop-Up Art School
Friday, March 7, 3:30-5:00pm, Tarbell Room
Make your own fuzzy bee using wool fibers and flowers for this friendly little pollinator to buzz around. For ages 13+. Registration required.
Lincoln250 Series: Abigail Adams Presented by Sheryl Faye
Saturday, March 8, 2:00-3:00pm, Tarbell Room
All ages are invited to Sheryl Faye’s engaging portrayal of Abigail Adams, wife of second President John Adams and sister of Lincoln Minute Men Captain William Smith. All ages welcome. Sponsored by the Friends of Lincoln Library.
Poetry reading with Linda Lamenza
Saturday, March 8, 3:15-4:15pm, Tarbell Room
Linda Lamenza, a local poet and teacher in Lincoln Public Schools, will read from her new book, Feast of the Seven Fishes.
Craft Supply Swap
Saturday, March 8, 12:30-3:30pm, Reference Room
Do you have gently used or leftover craft supplies? Bring them to the library to swap for new-to-you supplies! Donations are not required to participate. Click here to learn what can and can’t be donated.
My Turn: Proposed private-jet Hanscom expansion is a climate bomb in sheep’s clothing
By Alex Chatfield
Fellow Lincolnites: Don’t let Massport pull the wool over our eyes. The proposal for an immense private jet hangar facility at Hanscom Field is a climate bomb in sheep’s clothing that must be stopped. Hanscom Field civilian airport is owned and operated by Massport, and is distinct from Hanscom Air Force Base which focuses on research and development and has no airfield.
Private jets are the most carbon-intensive form of travel per passenger, and frequently used for leisure and convenience. Expanding this form of travel in the midst of a climate crisis is indefensible. For this reason, Massport and prospective developers have packaged their enormous 522,000-square-foot, highly polluting proposal as a model of “sustainable aviation” to distract the public and policymakers.
A 5-minute CBS News segment on “How Airports are ‘Greenwashing’ their Reputations” reveals that when airports claim to be sustainable, they are referring solely to their green buildings and infrastructure, which comprise only 2% of the emissions generated at airports, while excluding aircraft emissions, which constitute the remaining 98%.
The CBS report further spotlights the hope and hype surrounding sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which the prospective Hanscom developers enthusiastically tout, saying their new facility will promote SAFs. This claim is misleading on several counts. First, the word “promote” holds little weight since, as the CBS report discloses, the FAA prohibits airports or airport facilities from requiring a specific type of fuel. Second, by the Hanscom developers’ own admission, “the aviation industry projects use of alternative/clean-fuel aircraft (i.e., electric or SAF) to be approximately 10 percent of aircraft by 2030” (see the developers’ DEIR [Draft Environmental Impact Report], Section 3.1.3).
These points were reinforced by a January 8 webinar on SAFs attended by nearly 200 participants statewide. After examining several types of SAFs, independent analysts from MIT, the World Resources Institute, and the Institute for Policy Studies cautioned that while SAFs are technically feasible, it is not likely that they will be available at scale by 2050, the year that scientists say we must reach net zero to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
Moreover, the trade-offs with SAF production at scale are daunting. Crop-based SAFs would sabotage food production by hijacking arable land for jet fuel. For example, to reach the current U.S. goal of 35 billion gallons of SAF in 2050 would require 114 million acres of corn—20 percent more than the current total land area of corn crops in the U.S. Meanwhile, synthetic SAFs for jets would put an enormous burden on the electric grid, competing with internet, AI, heat/AC, light and refrigeration.
Concerns about greenwashing were echoed by area Select Board members and our state legislators at the January 28 virtual HATS meeting (Hanscom-Area Town Selectboards) with new Massport CEO Rich Davey.
Mark Sandeen, chair of HATS stated that, if the proposed private jet expansion were to go forward, the 75 or so additional private jets at the new facility would generate more emissions than all of the houses and cars in Lexington, Bedford, Concord and Lincoln combined. “You’re looking at a group of people here who dedicated decades of their lives to reducing the emissions of their towns, and to see one project wipe out any possibility of success… we don’t view that as small,” he said.
State Sen. Mike Barrett posited to Davey that “there is a sense in which you’re rolling out SAFs, I think, as a shield and in order to disarm us,” a point that Davey heatedly denied, referencing an SAF startup in Charlestown in his defense. To this, Barrett replied: “We have lots of startups in Massachusetts that hope someday to cure cancer, and we certainly want to encourage them to try. But none of us go out and encourage our kids to smoke cigarettes because the cure is going to come in their lifetimes.”
Christopher Eliot, chair of HFAC (Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, representing the four Hanscom-area towns) added that after studying SAFs in “excruciating detail,” he doesn’t believe they have technical merit: “Each new version solves one problem and creates two others… They’re either going to blow out agriculture or blow out the electrical system.”
Speaking for many, Eliot shared this comment: “The only thing that’s acceptable to anybody… here is the status quo… there’s none who would have any tolerance for the expansion.”
Eliot’s view is shared by more than 14,000 people across the Commonwealth that have signed a petition urging Gov. Healey to take all possible action to stop private jet expansion at Hanscom or anywhere because it is antithetical to Massachusetts’ efforts to rein in climate change.
“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
Dan Dimancescu, 1943–2025
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.
News acorns
Henry Purcell Society concert on Friday
Join the Henry Purcell Society of Boston and the Filigree Ensemble for “The Inevitability of Love” — a candlelit concert probing the multifaceted nature of desire and love through a series of dramatic cantatas and duets by Scarlatti, Purcell, Morley, and Henry Lawes — on Friday, Feb. 21 at 8:00pm at the First Parish in Lincoln’s stone church (14 Bedford Rd). Also featured: Cullen O’Neil on cello and Andrus Madsen on harpsichord. Tickets are $40; click here to purchase.
Forum on reimagining healthcare
Joining state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, Rep. Carmine Gentile, and others at “Reimagining Healthcare: A Community Forum” on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7:00pm at the Goodnow Library in Sudbury. The forum, hosted by the Sudbury, Lincoln, Maynard and Wayland Democratic Town Committees, will feature three experts on healthcare and an in-depth discussion and Q&A on universal healthcare and Medicare for all. Click here for details on panelists, and click here to RSVP.
Rep. Gentile’s office is also looking for summer interns, and he’s especially interested in candidates from towns in his district, which includes Sudbury, Lincoln, Concord, Wayland, and Marlborough. Click here to learn more. Anyone with questions about the internships or the Feb. 27 event may email Gentile’s aide Ravi Simon at ravisimon@gmail.com.
Photo exhibit by Lincolnite
Lincoln resident Linda Hammett Ory is exhibiting her photos in Concord Arts 2025 Members’ Juried Exhibition, along with painter Tracey J. Maroni. Linda’s love of nature is her strongest photographic inspiration, and many of the photos in her Hidden Treasure series are taken while exploring the landscape of Lincoln and Concord. The exhibition runs from February 27 to March 27, and the opening reception is on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 5:30pm. Click here for more information.
Hearing on water rates
The Lincoln Board of Water Commissioners will hold a hearing on water rates on Tuesday, March 4 at 7:00pm. The hearing is remote only; click here to join the meeting. Water Department Superintendent Darin LaFalam said the proposed rate will be revealed at the hearing.
The Water Department raised rates by 3% last year zero rate increases over the past 4 years until a 3% increase last summer. Though our cash flow was positive the previous year, 3% increase was required by the state DOR to satisfy their requirements for our FY25 budget. However, after a financial and staffing crisis that came to a head in 2019, rates went up by 28% in 2020.
Workshop dealing with substance use
The Great Meadows Public Health Collaborative is looking to engage people with lived experience with substance use (opioids, alcohol, prescription medication, etc.) for an art-making and audio storytelling workshop facilitated by the Opioid Project during the weekend of April 12-13. This workshop provides a safe space for individuals impacted by the opioid epidemic — including those who have lost a loved one to overdose, individuals in recovery, first responders, front-line workers, and nonmedical caregivers — to process and share their experiences through creative expression. For more details and to sign up, click here.
Historical Society has new website
The Lincoln Historical Society recently unveiled its revamped website in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the beginning of organized resistance to British rule. The site features an expansive overview of the town’s history with an ever-expanding collection of historic photos, documents, and materials as well as information on Lincoln250 and other events, an online bookstore, and their “Did You Know? blog.
Correction
In the February 20 article headlined “Legal notices in the Lincoln Squirrel OK’d by state,” a members-only link was given for the Lincoln Historic District Commission legal notice. The link has been corrected. No login is required for any legal notice.