Rochester Council on Aging

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The Rochester COA would like to wish all of our fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers a Happy Father’s Day.

            The Quarterly Birthday Luncheon and Party for those celebrating birthdays in the months of April, May, and June will take place on Monday, June 24 at noon. In addition to lunch, entertainment will be provided by “Paid in Full” (Alice Soares & Bill Guilmette). Call to reserve a spot for this fun filled event at 508-763-8723. A $5.00 donation is requested unless your birthday falls in April, May, or June. 

            What’s Next? On Wednesday, June 19at 4:00 pm, Andrew Bardetti, an attorney with South Coastal Counties Legal Services will hold a free presentation about options with subsidized housing, assisted living/nursing home rights, the pros and cons of reverse mortgages and homecare programs available. All are welcome to attend this free event.

            The monthly Senior Book Club will meet at the Senior Center on Tuesday, June 18at 10:15 am to discuss, “Following Atticus: Forty Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Adventure,” written by Tom Ryan. The group is led by the Library Director and is open to all. 

            Senator Michael Rodrigues schedules a monthly two-hour window to speak with his constituents at the Senior Center every 4th Wednesday of the month from 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm. Appointments are not required. Please feel free to drop in. June 26is the 4th Wednesday in June.

            The Friends of the Rochester Senior Center are hosting a Meet, Greet, & Eat Dinner on Thursday, June 20at 5:30 pm. Pulled pork sandwich bar with all of the fixings will be served. All are welcome. The more friends, the merrier. Please sign up for this event at the Senior Center.

            Friday, June 28is Free Fun Friday (various museums waive admission fees for seniors). The Rochester Senior Center is going to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Lunch is at the Salem Cross Inn. The bus leaves the Senior Center at 8:00 am and will return at approximately 4:00 pm. Please sign up in advance to reserve your seat on the van. A $5.00 donation is requested upon sign-up. 

            Rides: We provide free transportation for Rochester residents. Please call for a ride with one of our friendly drivers at least 24 hours in advance so we can schedule a driver!

            Follow the Senior Center on Facebook. Many events, notifications and pictures from events are posted on Facebook for your convenience. 

            Please contact us at the Senior Center at 508-763-8723 for more information or to make reservations for rides and/or events. 

Youth Orchestras Auditions

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The Southeastern Massachusetts Youth Orchestras (SEMAYO) will be holding auditions for new and returning students on June 19 & 20at UMass Dartmouth’s College of Visual & Performing Arts recital hall room 153 (use parking lot 9). New students and current students wishing to move up to the next level should prepare an audition piece and the required scales for the ensemble they are interested in. Students who are already members of SEMAYO and wish to remain in their current ensembles do not have to audition.

            The audition requirements for each ensemble can be found at www.semayo.org. To set up an audition time, please email youth orchestra coordinator Jamie Wiksten at jwiksten@nbsymphony.org.

Academic Achievements

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Emma Louise Keeler of Rochester and Grace Ann Russell of Mattapoisett graduated from Falmouth Academyon June 8.

            Rachel McCoog of Marion graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Integrated SS/Engineering degree with Honors from Lehigh Universityin Spring 2019.

            On Saturday, May 11, on the Worcester Polytechnic Institute(WPI) campus quadrangle, 1,019 bachelor’s degrees were awarded during the university’s 151st commencement ceremony. Stephen Burke of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. Chad Underhill of Rochester was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science with high distinction. Nicholas Lima of Marion was awarded a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

            The following students have been named to the Spring 2019 President’s List at Husson University. Olivia Ann Pellegrino of Mattapoisett is a sophomore who is currently enrolled in Husson’s Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration and Public Health/Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program. Hannah Nadeau of Rochester is a sophomore who is currently enrolled in Husson’s Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Studies/Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program. Students who make the President’s List must carry at least 12 graded credit hours during the semester and earn a grade point average of 3.80 to 4.0 during the period.

            Emily Faulkner of Rochester, a Fine Arts major, and Casey Allaire of Mattapoisett, an Elementary Education major have been named to the Plymouth State UniversityPresident’s List for the spring 2019 semester. To be named to the president’s list, a student must achieve a grade point average of 3.7 or better for the Spring 2019 semester and must have attempted at least 12 credit hours during the semester.

            Dean Collegeis pleased to announce that Robert Tetreault of Mattapoisett has earned a place on the Dean’s List for the Spring 2019 semester.

Frank J. Ryder III (Jay)

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Frank J. Ryder III (Jay), 71, died June 11, 2019, at home in Marion due to complications from prostate cancer. He was the husband of Meredith Wickenden Ryder. 

            Jay was born in Boston on January 5, 1948, son of the late Frank Jenkins Ryder, Jr. and Jane Porter Ryder of Attleboro and Marion. 

            He attended Governor’s Academy (formerly Governor Dummer Academy) in Byfield and attended business school at the University of Denver. Later he studied civil engineering technology at Southeastern Massachusetts University in Dartmouth for three years. 

            From 1970-1974, Jay proudly served his country on active duty in the United States Coast Guard. He was a radioman aboard the USCGC Barataria out of Alameda, Calif., and Radio Station Humboldt Bay in Eureka, Calif. 

            After living off the land in Middletown Springs, Vt., with college friends, Jay moved back to South Dartmouth and spent two years rebuilding the old Bullard Farm, while learning cattle farming and becoming a skilled, self-taught carpenter. 

            With visions of starting his own construction company, Jay moved to Marion and became a managing partner of Little Harbor Building Associates – a company created by his late father. He and his father developed a 100-acre parcel of land now known as Little Harbor Estates. Ultimately Jay became a builder/dealer for Acorn Structures and spent the next three years building homes in southern New England. 

            In 1979, he moved to Newport, R.I., to begin a career in engineering. Jay served as marketing director for Halliwell Associates in East Providence until 1983, then moved to Darien, Conn., where he worked for East Coast Engineering until 1985. 

            His most successful business accomplishment was becoming director of marketing for Catalyst Energy Development Corporation in New York City. For the next four years he worked in the alternative energy business developing low head hydroelectric, co-generation, solar and district heating and cooling projects with private firms nationally. 

            Trading in his business suit for shorts and a set of clubs, Jay moved to Palm Desert, Calif., in 1989. There he wrote and marketed “The Greater Palm Springs Golf Guide” – a 165-page play book on 50 public and private courses in the desert area. 

            At age 42, however, it was time to put down permanent roots. Returning finally to Marion in 1991, he married his childhood friend, Meredith Wickenden, and settled down to raise their five children. 

            In Jay’s words: “It was the best decision I ever made in my life.” 

            In Marion, Jay’s real estate management enterprise, Ryder Real Estate Management Company, grew and flourished and allowed him to serve the community he loved. 

            Jay served on the Marion Planning Board as clerk, vice-president, and chairman for six years and chaired the initial Town House Advisory Committee. With Betty Cheney, he co-founded the annual Marion Christmas Stroll. An avid reader, he was an active member of the Elizabeth Taber Library, and a friend to all who worked there. As a member of the First Congregational Church, he was a devoted scripture reader at services. 

            A passionate competitor and sportsman, Jay enjoyed fishing, tennis, and golf with his family and many friends. Additionally, he was a longtime member of the Sippican Tennis Club and Piney Point Beach Club. 

            Jay is survived by his wife, Meredith, and their five loving children, daughter Devon Hamilton, husband Lee, and their children Cameron, Jonathan, and Jackson; son Marshall Birkins, wife Heather, and their children Brynn, Marshall, and Brooks; daughter Courtney Polhemus, husband Aaron, and their children Katherine and William; sons, Christopher Birkins and James Birkins, and James’ fiancée, Jessica Roeder. 

            Jay is also survived by his sister Suzanne Herriman, husband Fred, their daughter Ashley; his brother, Tyler Ryder, wife Dana, and their children Madison and Wyatt; his brother-in-law James Wickenden, wife Martha, and sister-in-law, Jeanne Wickenden Lake. 

            A Memorial Service and Celebration of Life will be held at the Wickenden Chapel 86 Spring Street in Marion on Sunday July 21, 2019 at 12 Noon. In lieu of flowers, donations may be considered to Community Nurse Home Care or The First Congregational Church of Marion – Deacon’s Fund. For online condolence book, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

M. Elizabeth (Kelley) Behenna

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M. Elizabeth (Kelley) Behenna, 97, of Mattapoisett passed away peacefully on Friday, June 7, 2019 after a brief illness. She was the wife of the late William H. Behenna. 

            Born in Boston, the daughter of the late Michael and Katherine (Garvey) Kelley, Betty lived in Belmont for many years. Since 1955, she and her family summered in Mattapoisett until moving to her favorite place, their cottage by the sea, in 1995. 

            Betty is survived by her children, Michele Burgess of Stony Creek, CT, and David Behenna and his wife Laura of Rye Beach, NH; seven grandchildren, Matthew Burgess, Katherine DiMarco, Meghan Havican, Susan Burgess, Natalie Behenna, William Behenna II, and Christopher Behenna; six great-grandchildren, Juliana, Andrew, Finn, Rhys, Evan, and Grace; and many nieces and nephews. 

            Betty was predeceased by her sister, Patricia Durham. 

            Her Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 at 11:00 AM at St. Anthony’s Church, Mattapoisett. Burial will follow in St. Anthony’s Cemetery. There are no calling hours. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Society of St. Vincent dePaul, c/o St. Anthony’s Church, P.O. Box 501, Mattapoisett, MA 02739 or Paralyzed Veterans of America, 7 Mill Brook Road, Wilton, NH 03086. For online condolence book, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

Library Roof Repairs Prove More Extensive

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            The roof repair work at the Taber Library went a bit over budget, resulting in the Marion Finance Committee approving a Reserve Fund transfer for $16,000 to cover the excess cost.

            Finance Director Judy Mooney reported that while Facilities Director Shaun Cormier and his employees were on the roof repairing the cupola and replacing the shingles, it was discovered that the entire roof would need re-sheathing.

            Some sheathing was included in the original cost of the project, “but not the entire roof,” said Mooney, “and that’s what it needed.”

            The town had to act quickly, added Mooney, because workers were already up on the roof and in the middle of the job when the unexpected discovery of the rotting sheathing was discovered.

            The project is still a frugal one, Mooney said, since town staff within the Facilities Department is performing most of the labor.

            “They are actually saving almost $10,000 just by doing it in-house,” said Mooney. “It’s $16,000 – we know it’s a lot. All of this will be enough in the reserve – we will wipe out the reserve, but we don’t see anything else out there.”

            The Finance Committee also approved a number of other Reserve Fund transfers, including one for $7,2000 for computer and software upgrades in the Finance Office, and $55,000 for sewer matters related to the EPA administrative consent order.

            “Whatever we don’t use … flows right back into the retained earnings in the sewer,” said Mooney.

            The Marion Finance Committee has no plan to meet again until August.

Marion Finance Committee

By Jean Perry

OC Baseball Shutout in State Tournament

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            Old Colony baseball season isn’t quite done yet, but the Cougars’ shot at making a run in the MIAA Division 4 South Sectional tournament is at an end following their 7-0 to No. 6 Cohasset in Monday’s quarter finals matchup.

            The third-ranked Cougars fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, which the Skippers turned into a 3-0 lead by the end of the second. Old Colony pitcher Nick Hedlundand the defense settled in from there, but the Cougars offense simply couldn’t figure out Cohasset starting pitcher George Grech. Matt Bumpusand Jacob Wordenwere the old two Cougars with base hits.

            “We got beat by a good baseball team,” Old Colony coach Craig Lincoln said. “If you don’t hit the ball, you don’t score runs – you don’t win games. It’s that simple. We talk about the mathematics of the game. Mathematically, they beat us today.”

            As the Cougars tried to fight their way back, Hedlund ran into a little predicament in the seventh inning after the Skippers had already scored their fourth run of the game in the sixth frame. It seemed he was going to work his way out of a jam, but when a call didn’t go Old Colony’s way, Cohasset capitalized for three more runs to make it 7-0.

            “Kind of fell apart a little bit,” Lincoln said. “More worried about blue instead of worrying about black. We talk about worrying about black and gold, control – what we can control. We lost our minds for a few minutes and talked about just getting our minds back together and getting ready for the vocational tournament and having the ability to win at the end of the season, which most of the time doesn’t happen for us.”

            Now the Cougars await their matchup with McCann Tech in the State Vocational Final. No date has been set yet, but Old Colony will have to hit the road to play their western Massachusetts opponent.

            Looking toward the future, the Cougars won a game in the South Sectional tournament and could potentially win two State Vocational Tournament games after going winless in the postseason in 2018. Having won their sixth-consecutive Mayflower Small Vocational Division title in 2019, the Cougars (15-5) want to maintain their development in 2020.

            “Keeping these guys hungry and making sure [they’re] staying mentally focused from beginning to end,” Lincoln said on what needs to be the team’s focus going forward. “You have a team that started out as a bunch of sophomores last year that now, over the course of two years, has won 31 games. Pretty good.

            “Helping them understand we’re not just trying to win a conference championship, we want to be successful in the postseason,” Lincoln continued. “And we kind of got the monkey off our back in both tournaments [by] getting a win in both tournaments this year. So [we will] continue to make strides with this group and hopefully keep the younger guys understanding what it’s going to take to keep the program going as we move forward.”

High School Sports Update

By Nick Friar

Bourne Wareham Art Association

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The Bourne Wareham Art Association is meeting on Tuesday, June 18, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, at BB’s Bar & Grill, 2424 Cranberry Highway, Wareham. Food is available for purchase. The business meeting will be followed by a painting demonstration by Frances Kut-Best of Fairhaven. New members are welcome. Please see our Facebook page at The Official Bourne-Wareham Art Association.

Sippican Historical Society

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In 1998, the Sippican Historical Society commissioned an architectural survey of Marion’s historic homes and buildings. The survey was funded one-half by the Sippican Historical Society and one-half by the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Due to the limits of funding, not all of the historic buildings were surveyed, but over 100 were catalogued and photographed. The results of the survey are in digital form on the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s website and in four binders in the Sippican Historical Society’s office (and at the Marion Town Clerk’s office).

            Marion (Old Rochester) is one of the oldest towns in the United States, and the Sippican Historical Society maintains an extensive collection of documentation on its historic buildings. The Sippican Historical Society will preview one building a week so that the residents of Marion can understand more about its unique historical architecture.

            This installment features 290 Converse Road. The modest wood shingle-clad Italianate cottage at 290 Converse Road was built c. 1880 for and probably by Francis C. Blankinship a “carpenter and builder.” He lived here until at least 1910.

The Miraculous Octopus

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            In this modern day and age of natural history, human beings are now discovering advanced miraculous phenomena about the previously esoteric octopus. Although oceans cover about 71 percent of the earth, it seems that human beings have barely scratched the surface of the immense shallow Atlantic continental shelf of North America, just beyond the south coast of Buzzards Bay. Exploration becomes a trip back in time through a cloudy twilight time zone of almost 3 billion years of evolution. Beneath the surface, the speed of sound is more than five times faster than through the air, the wrecks of ancient ships seem to last forever, and the evolution of species is almost beyond chronological measurement.

            Ancient Greek seafaring mariners in 1500 B.C. were known to fear the octopus as a terrifying denizen of the deep depicted in artwork and designs of the period and portrayed as climbing aboard ships to threaten fishermen. Today, the Atlantic octopus inhabits the relatively recluse rocky ledges and reefs of protruding coastlines, as well as shallow tidal pools of the Southcoast.

            Occasionally New Bedford scallop dredgers come back into port with one on board, and bottom fisherman have told of pulling one up, foaming from the mouth with a spray of ink as a defensive reaction to a predator. A secretive dweller, it keeps a very low profile minding its own business with very little hostility to shoreline or boating human activity.

            My illustration shows a mother octopus turning bright red to face off an eel threatening its young. I have shown its extended arms are covered with white circular adhesive discs to stabilize itself attached to an object or a predator such as an eel. Then it can draw it in closer by muscular contraction. It may also inflict a bite with a razor-sharp blade over its mouth, inflicting an infection that ultimately dissolves its victim.

            Recent research and periodicals about the octopus seem to offer an amazing number of possible medical offerings for human use. Specifically is the octopus’ ability of taste through the discs, and an almost superhuman intelligent communication through its behavioral nervous system. They can make use of 168 kinds of sensory awareness cells that make connections of sensitivity for communication. (Humans have 58).

            The octopus has three hearts – one systematic to circulate blood through the body, and the other two to pump blood through the gills for breathing. They swim by expelling a jet of water through the mantle siphon into the sea. They have also developed an advanced degree of intelligence with remarkable problem solving ability and primitive tool-using skills. Because of reactive mobility of adaption to changing conditions and locations, they might even be humorously written up as possessing the brainpower of intelligent extraterrestrials.

            In captivity they seem to relate to their aquarium keepers. They also demonstrate a capacity to use tools to unscrew a bottle cap or unlock the latch of the fence of their pool to be able to move out of sight.

            The reputation of the octopus was previously described as metaphysical, by separating fact from mythical fiction, has now surfaced as a concrete species of natural phenomenon. It is verified as a living specimen of environmental awareness and communication. Thank you for joining me in this subterranean literary adventure in natural history along the shoreline of Buzzards Bay.

By George B. Emmons