Category Archives: Obituaries

Death Announced of Old Lyme’s 2017 Citizen of the Year, Captain Roderick M. White

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This photo was taken Jan. 22, 2018, on the night that the late Captain Roderick M. White was named Old Lyme’s 2017 Citizen of the Year. From left to right standing are Old Lyme Selectwoman Mary Jo Nosal, Selectman Chris Kerr, Judy White, and then First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder, who presented the award. Captain White, whose death was announced yesterday, is seated.

OLD LYME — The death of Captain Roderick M. White on March 11, 2020, has been announced. He was 91. A service for White will be held at the United States Coast Guard Chapel with an inurnment in the Columbarium at the Academy. Services will be scheduled when the Academy re-opens.

Captain White was Old Lyme’s 2017 Citizen of the Year and the proclamation announcing that read, “Over the course of his 50+ years in Old Lyme, Rod White has set a high standard for community service. Born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, Rod graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1950. He spent the next quarter of a century making his mark in the Coast Guard. A faculty member from 1969 to 1974, he served as Dean of Academics from 1974 to 1983. In 1969, he was named the outstanding Naval Engineer of the year, receiving the prestigious Gold Medal from the American Society of Naval Engineers.”

Commenting in more detail on White’s Gold Medal citation, the Proclamation said it, “refers to “his exceptional analytical skills and technical competence… [and] significant contributions in the advancement of icebreaker design …” It was Rod’s “White Bow” design that made it possible for the SS Manhattan to make the first successful transit of the Northwest Passage by a commercial vessel.”

Another photo from the 2017 Citizen of the Year celebrations shows Captain White (seated) being congratulated by previous Old Lyme Citizens of the Year, Jeff Sturges (left) and Lynn Fairfield-Sonn (right.) See more photos of that night at this link.

The Proclamation continued, “Rod White has used his exceptional skills in our community in so many ways. A founding member of the Harbor Management Commission, he served as Chair from 1988 to 1994, and was elected Registrar of Voters from 1993 to 2004. An active member of the Republican Town Committee, serving as both secretary and vice-chair, he was elected for two terms to the Regional District 18 Board of Education, serving from 1997 to 2005.  Rod was our Town’s representative to the Southeastern Tourism District for many years, and currently serves on the Board of Assessment Appeals, a position to which he was first elected in 2007.”

Adding, “Despite his obviously busy schedule, Rod willingly shared his talents with a larger community, as well,”  the Proclamation listed that Captain White served as Executive Director for the Eastern CT Foundation for Public Giving, Executive Director of the Coast Guard Foundation, Chair of the Boy Scouts Long Range Planning Committee and as a member of both the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Board and Connecticut’s Olympic Committee. He was also a loyal and active member of Rotary International since 1975.

Read Captain White’s obituary at this link.

Editor’s Note: We extend our deepest sympathies to Captain White’s family on his passing. We knew him as a kind and gracious gentleman, always ready to help anyone at any time, and a pillar of public service .

Death Announced of Barbara Woodman Wyden

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Barbara Woodman Wyden

Barbara Woodman Wyden, born July 1, 1922 passed away on January 4, 2020, at Davis Nursing Home, Wilmington, N.C.

Barbara graduated from Radcliff in 1941. She worked for Newsweek Magazine as editor of International News. Other newspapers that she worked for were the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles times and then settling down to the New York Times as editor of the women’s section. Barbara was a ghost writer as well; writing all of Joyce Brothers books as well as many others. Barbara befriended Kaye Summersby, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s driver during World War II, and wrote “Past Forgetting” using much of the information from Eisenhower’s diaries. Kaye died before the book was published, so Barbara left the dairies to her brother, Richard Woodman, who contacted the Eisenhower Library and donated those pages of the diaries that she had. They are now in a section of the Library dedicated to his wartime efforts.

Barbara was preceded in death by her father, Clarence Woodman, her mother Katherine Woodman and her sister, Virginia Woodman Cordes.

No services are planned at this time.

Arrangements are being handled by Wilmington Funeral & Cremation, 1535 S. 41st Street, Wilmington NC 28403.

Death of Marc MacDonald Announced; Old Lyme HS, USCGA Graduate

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James Marc MacDonald
September 5, 1946 – November 3, 2019

James Marc MacDonald

Marc MacDonald crossed over the bar one last time after a long battle with cancer. He was born to parents Elmer and Irene (Thorp) MacDonald in Norwell, MA, and moved to Old Lyme, CT with his family in 1962. He graduated Old Lyme High School in 1964 and the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1968.

Marc embarked on a 30 year Coast Guard career, obtaining the rank of Captain. His Coast Guard duties took him all over the world from Antarctica to the Seychelles Islands. He had extended duty stations in Hawaii, Japan and Guam. His final assignment was Captain of the Port of San Francisco, where he excelled at his primary specialty Marine Safety.

Following his retirement from the Coast Guard, he had a 13 year career as the Vice President of Safety for Pacific Maritime Association in San Francisco. He was a longtime member of the National Maritime Safety Association, serving on its Board of Directors and Technical Committee.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Jean Kehoe MacDonald of Alameda CA, his two sons, Jason and his wife Melanie of Midlothian, VA, and Greg and his wife Melanie of Lincoln, CA and his three grandchildren; Ian, Paige and Michael. He is also survived by two brothers; John MacDonald of Old Lyme and Matthew MacDonald of Lyme and a sister Marsha MacDonald of The Villages, FL.

In his final years, Marc enjoyed volunteering at The Crucible, an industrial arts center in Oakland, CA. In lieu of flowers, it is requested that donations be made, in his name, to The Crucible to support their youth programs.

Marc will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at a future date.

Lyme Land Trust to Rename Moulson Pond Fishway in Honor of Former Board Member, Land Trust President Linda Bireley.

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LYME — The Lyme Land Trust will rename the Moulson Pond Fishway in honor of former board member and Land Trust President Linda Bireley.  Ms. Bireley, lover of the environment and the preserves of Lyme, passed away Nov. 8, 2019.

She served on the board of directors of the Lyme Land Trust for more than 10 years, as president from 2006-2007.  As stewardship committee chair, she worked to develop many of the trails in Lyme and developed a digitized stewardship monitoring program.

Ms. Bireley spearheaded the campaign to build three fish ladders in Lyme, most notably the Moulson Pond fish ladder. She was the first Town of Lyme Open Space Coordinator, from 2006 until 2014, when she was forced to retire due to illness.

The Lyme Land Trust notes in a press release, “We in Lyme were very fortunate to have had Linda,  a woman with such a dedicated and generous spirit, serving on our behalf. Moreover, she was a beloved and admired friend.”

Calling hours are Friday, Nov. 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Lyme Fire Department, Rte. 156, Lyme.

The full obituary is published at this link 

Death of LymeLine Contributor, Former NY State Senator Jerome ‘Jerry’ Wilson Announced

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The late Jerome (Jerry) L. Wilson.

ESSEX — It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our beloved contributor, Jerome ‘Jerry’ L. Wilson. Mr. Wilson, 88, passed away Friday, Nov. 1, in Essex. We have not yet heard the details of services for Mr. Wilson but will publish them as soon as we receive them.

Mr. Wilson was a great supporter of our online news ventures and contributed more article and photos to ValleyNewsNow.com and LymeLine.com than we can count. Coincidentally, Mr. Wilson was room-mates at Colgate University with John ‘Jack’ Turner, who was the founder of LymeLine.com in 2003. Most of Mr. Wilson’s articles were published on ValleyNewsNow.com, which was founded by Lon Seidman in 2009. Both sites are now owned by Shoreline Web News LLC.

Mr. Wilson was passionate about the importance of local news and determined to keep it very much on the front burner.  He would pursue stories with the grit of a rookie journalist, never giving up until he had answers or comments from everyone he believed should be involved. A character in every way imaginable, Mr. Wilson had a heart of gold and we will miss him dearly.

He led a storied career as a Democratic State Senator from Manhattan, an on-air political correspondent and editor for WCBS-TV, and a lawyer. He was perhaps best known for his determined and ultimately successful efforts to change the New York state law, which required a spouse to prove adultery as the sole way to gain a divorce. New York was the only remaining state in the country with this provision when then Senator Wilson took up the issue. By the time the new law was passed in September 1967 with Sen. Wilson leading the state judicial committee that had proposed it, four additional grounds for divorce had been added.

This past Tuesday, Nov. 5, the New York Times published an article about Mr. Wilson at this link by NYT Obituaries Reporter Sam Roberts.

We extend our deepest sympathies to Mr. Wilson’s wife Ulla, his four daughters, two stepsons, six grandchildren, and four step-grandchildren.