| Notes |
- The Bolton Common (MA)
July 25, 2008
Warren K. Colby, a 50-year resident of Bolton, died at his home in Cape Rosier, Maine, on July 14, 2008, at the age of 95. He was a vital man with boundless energy and an insatiable curiosity.
Born in Newton in 1913, he claimed to have been a strong student, and judging by his recollections, a stronger baseball and hockey player. He spent many summers at an old family home in the then-rural community of Epsom, N.H., where he honed his appreciation for old homes and farming, and where he developed the Yankee ability to build it, repair it, recycle it, or do without it.
He attended Yale University, where he received a classic education and played varsity hockey and baseball. After graduating, he worked for Eastman Kodak Company. He combined the ready access to film and cameras with his love of skiing and took reels of film documenting early skiing in New England which he recently provided to the New England Ski Museum.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom and the pacific. In 1941 during a two-week leave, he married Mary (Mariah) Prentice; they spent their honeymoon in Stowe, Vt., where because of the war they had Mt. Mansfield to themselves.
Upon discharge from the Navy, he and Mariah moved to Bolton, where they bought an old farm and the local general store (The Cracker Barrel) in the town center. He later lamented his poor business timing, as it was just at this time that supermarkets were coming into vogue. Parting with the store, he took a job with Browne and Nichols School as business manager. While there, he found time to develop and teach an anthropology course, as well as coach numerous hockey teams.
In the early 1970s, he left Browne and Nichols and applied his business skills to various environmental causes. He helped write and pass open space legislation in Massachusetts, and subsequently worked for the Mass. Horticultural Society and finally the Dept. of Agriculture where he was instrumental in developing, promoting, and lobbying for the successful passage of the Agricultural Preservation Restriction legislation. One of his proudest achievements, this legislation enabled Massachusetts to purchase development rights from farmers, making it easier for farmers to keep their land in farming. This program, one of the first in the nation, has successfully preserved many acres of Massachusetts farmland, including several farms in Bolton.
During his time in Bolton, he was active in town government. He was a member of the early regional school committee that established the Nashoba Regional School District and initiated construction of the high school. He helped establish the Bolton Conservation Commission as well as the Bolton Conservation Trust, and served as chairman of both for many years.
After retiring in the early 1980s, he was able to focus all his energies on his many varied, lifelong interests. He skied regularly (well into his 80s); raced sailboats; built boats, his retirement home in Maine, and pine furniture; canoed the Allagash and cruised the coast of Maine; raised sheep, vegetables, and "poseys," and sang in various chorals and choruses. Well into his 90s, he was still exercising his mind by participating in colloquies, and tackling environmental and social issues by penning letters to editors of his regional newspapers.
He is survived by his daughter, Betsy Cussen, former Bolton town clerk, now living in Denver, Colo.; three sons, J. Prentice Colby of Marlborough, N.H., Herb Colby of Bolton, and Andy Colby of Orlando, Fla.; their spouses, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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1913 - 2008 (95 years)
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