Good morning, Upper Valley. This will be a different Daybreak from usual today. Because I need to begin with a tribute.
My friend Mark Travis died early Saturday morning of an infection that overwhelmed his system. He was 67, and he leaves behind a close-knit and grieving family, a large and stunned circle of friends and former colleagues, and a gaping hole in his community of Canterbury, NH.
The reason I tell you this is that Daybreak likely wouldn't exist without him. His wisdom and insights are in its DNA. His calming, thoughtful advice and deep knowledge of local news helped keep both me and the newsletter on an even keel throughout its early years. He rarely told me what he thought I should do—though he was unvarnished when he did. Instead, he knew how to ask questions that would help illuminate the road ahead and weigh the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. He did this unstintingly and with his full attention—which is how he approached anyone seeking his thoughts. Daybreak gained its footing with Mark as a caring presence by its side (though he
didn't hesitate to tell me he thought it's gotten too long; in his honor, the rest of today's will be short).
If Mark's name seems familiar, it’s because for a time he was the publisher of the
Valley News
; he and his wife, Brenda, lived in Lebanon, and their daughter Leanna—now an M.D.—played basketball for Lebanon High. He also was part of the small founding crew at the startup where we met, DailyUV.
Mark had a long and illustrious career in newspaper journalism, first at the
St. Petersburg Times
, then, for most of it, with Newspapers of New England, the parent company to the
Valley News
and the
Concord Monitor
—where Mark truly came into his own as a reporter and then an editor and then as publisher. He moved on to DailyUV despite the skepticism of some of his former colleagues because, at the
Monitor
, he’d had to participate first-hand in the tumult besetting local news as its revenue models eroded. It ravaged his spirit and his health, and the move to a no-name local tech startup was a chance, as he put it, to try to rebuild local news, not just oversee endless rounds of cutting.
Obituaries will trace his life more fully, but what you need to know about Mark is that he was one of the best writers and storytellers I’ve ever known, a brilliant and wide-ranging thinker, and, maybe more than anything, a mensch. There’s a line in the beautiful Rose Betts farewell song below that begins, “May your hardened heart be woken…” That was not Mark. Mark’s heart was cheerful and open, fully awake, and roomy.
Despite a life marked several times by tragedy, he was an inspiration. He’d survived a near-death bout with a form of leukemia, and in the years after would drop everything to devote time and his boundless attention to people who were also suffering through cancer. He was a generous mentor to young writers. He spent countless hours with his church and in Canterbury making his town a better place. He possessed a playful and roguish (for an honor-bound New Englander) sense of humor that he used to get to know strangers quickly, an open-minded curiosity about other people and their experiences, and an easy affability that got pretty much anyone he encountered talking. He was a devoted friend, and a true-hearted and attentive husband to Brenda, father to Ben and Leanna, and grandfather to Ollie and Annabelle. As a mutual friend put it yesterday, “He had been through the wars…and through it all, he kept his good heart and exclamation points at the ready.”
He was taken from us suddenly and too soon. I’ll miss him desperately.
But I can already hear him. He had an engaging, resonant voice, and it's saying: "You've taken up too much space, Rob. People aren't here to read about
me
."
So...
We woke up this morning with yesterday's high pressure already sliding off the coast, and it'll be followed by a low pressure system that's still off to the west. Today's clouds are out ahead of that, and though we may see some sky, especially later, temps won't get much above the mid or upper 40s. There's a warm front arriving tonight, though, that will bring a chance of showers overnight and a warming trend that begins around daybreak tomorrow. Lows tonight in the low 40s.
It wasn't today—it was
one of
last
week's dreary mornings, when Herb Detrick noticed a cheerily colored, eye-catching balloon over Lake Fairlee.
That's when Dartmouth's emergency management folks will conduct their annual test of emergency notifications—including two cycles of sirens and the outdoor address system, which can be heard up to 10 miles from campus.
It broke out Friday morning on the 8th floor of the Remsen Medical Sciences building, and though the fire itself was contained to a single space, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, water from an automated sprinkler system doused the floors below, arousing fears of damage to expensive equipment and ongoing research experiments. An initial walk-through, Eric writes, "seemed to reassure staff that none of the labs had been compromised by water and no experiments had been contaminated." No one was hurt in the fire. Story and photos at the link.
In particular, writes John Lippman in the
Valley News
, Hanover officials in last week's report "vowed to work with 'legal experts and community leaders' to draft clearer guidelines for future protests and public demonstrations that would recognize both 'adherence to laws' and 'protections of civil liberties.'" At the same time, writes town manager Rob Houseman in the four-page report, "the arrests on May 1 were carried out in a lawful and appropriate manner."
The Monday jigsaw. This unprepossessing one-room schoolhouse in Norwich, writes the Norwich Historical Society's Cam Cross, was built in 1827 for $92, plus $8 for a stove. "By 1865, the superintendent lamented the school was 'unfit for such a purpose.' He described a January session with pupils and teacher 'huddled and shivering around a stove in the little open shed. But all were disposed to make the best of the situation - a bright and promising set of pupils, a credit to the district.'"
Heads UpAt the Etna Library: "Ernest Harold Baynes: New Hampshire’s Own Doctor Doolittle". Author and historian Mary Kronenwetter will talk today at 6 pm at Trumbull Hall about the self-taught naturalist and early 20th century wildlife conservationist. Among other things, he fought to end the trade in bird feathers for fashion, established one of the first bird sanctuaries in the country, and convinced Teddy Roosevelt to help keep the American bison from extinction.Coast Jazz underground. Faculty members in Dartmouth's music department, along with various student jazz combos, will take the stage at Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover tonight at 8 pm.
And this morning...Rose Betts grew up in London and considers herself English, but her mother's side is Irish and, clearly, she inherited the gift for parting songs. This is the moment for one. Here's "Take This Body Home". See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Associate writer: Jonea Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Michael
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