Click on the member's name to view their rotary biography.
Clark Adams
Jerry Albert Sargeant at Arms
Jerry has worked in the heat transfer industry for 45 years. He is a graduate of the US Army Engineers School, Ft. Belvoir, Va, and has a degree in Industrial Technology from CCV. He is a certified member of the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society and a professional member of HVAC.COM.
He has handed control of Bennington Cooling and Heating, a company he founded in 1979, over to his son Richard. Jerry is still an advisor to that company. The Vermont licenses he holds are for electrical, plumbing, propane and oil. Also he is certified by the EPA for refrigerant usage.
Mary Lou, his wife and he have been married for 42 years and have resided on Main Street since 1980. They are parents of 4 children. Jerry has served as the Club's Sergeant-at Arms and is a Paul Harris Fellow.
Mary Albert
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Richard Albert
Richard Albert moved to Bennington
when he was seven years old. He was
born in Niverville, New York. The
family moved to Bennington when his
father realized that there were no
air condition contractors in the town,
So Jerry started the business in 1979.
His first office was on Benmont.
Rich joined Rotary because he wanted
to learn more the community. He
would read about people and events in
the Banner, but Rotary gives him an
opportunity for first= hand experience.
Listening to the speakers and talking
with other members of the club is
most valuable. He is also looking
forward to working at Garlic Fest and
the Car Show.
Matt Bentley
Bob Brower
Bob and his wife Judie own Schoolhouse Marketing; which specializes in marketing for horticultural companies and have clients throughout the world. They also own Higher Education Marketing Associates, Inc. which helps colleges and universities recruit students to their schools.
Lisa Byer
Originally from the Albany; NY area; Lisa came to Bennington in 1996 from Cape Cod were she had lived for a number of years. After taking a position at CAT-TV in 1997, she remained with the organization, which serves as Bennington's local cable access television stations, until finally becoming it's Executive Director in 2003. In addition to the Bennington Rotary Club, Lisa is active in several area and statewide organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Shires Media Partnership/WBTN, Vermont Access Network and Vermont Media Exchange.
Mary Canavan
Susan Coons
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Fredericka Cuenca
Michael Day President
Mike moved to Shaftsbury in 2012 after retiring from a 40-year career in engineering and product management at Goulds Pumps/ITT Corp. Mike and his wife, Jan, lived in Seneca Falls, NY and raised two daughters prior to moving to Vermont. We were attracted to Vermont from taking many vacations in this area over 30 plus years.
Mike was familiar with Rotary from close associations with Rotarians in Seneca Falls. It seemed a natural extension to join Rotary to serve and learn about the Bennington community. In addition to serving as Club Service chair, Mike and Jan enjoy traveling the country and internationally.
Jon Endres
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
John Gagnon
Dean Hanson
Dean has been a Rotary member of the Bennington Club for 50+ years. He has served as secretary, President and is a Paul Harris Fellow. A native Vermonter, his early education was in Barton; VT with college work in Boston and Evanston, Ill.
Judy Hill
Judy works for Suburban Propane and is thrilled to be able to be part of the Rotary Team again.
Cindy Hudson-Knapp Secretary
Cindy (Lucinda) Hudson-Knapp enjoys a wide range of interests, from singing in 2nd Congregational Church choir and sewing mission kits, to organizing the Empty Bowls Supper for our area, to designing and installing gardens with Rotarians at GBICS and Community Gardens, to creating bird, animal and imaginative pottery bowls. You can tell Cindy is a retired high school art teacher. Cindy also cares a lot about the environment which shows in her work at the annual Sun and Fun Festival and working with Climate Advocates Bennington 350VT. These interests have led her to chair our Rotary Community Service team.
Marshall Hudson-Knapp
A retired U.C.C. minister and founder of Knapp's Pets & Hobbies, I have enjoyed Bennington Rotary since I was in high school coming to Rotary with my dad, Ron Knapp. The speakers always enrich my awareness and often stretch my heart. The mix of people and perspectives of our club's members, and the mutual respect and playfulness we share is a real joy in my life. Making a difference in the lives of people at the edges of life is a burning concern to me, so working on community service and embodying "Service before Self" speak right to my heart, and why I work on the mission team at Second Congregational Church. I also treasure meeting new friends, so if you are coming to try out our Rotary I hope we will get to know each other!
Shep Jones
Born in Bennington, Graduate of Ben-Hi and Middlebury College, I first retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 20 years in the Ordnance Corps of the US Army providing logistics support around the world. We moved 21 times during that period.
Susan Katz
Susan Katz grew up in Rochester, NY, attended Alfred University and moved to Hartford, CT to work in the insurance industry. She worked in investments and insurance in 5 states for 35 years and in 2000 started her own financial advisor business.
She moved to Bennington from Scituate, MA. in 2005 and has been a Rotarian since 1993. She has been treasurer, director and is currently the club secretary.
Nancy Koziol
Tom Lenkowski Treasurer
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Catherine McClure
Cathy was the first generation in her family to go right to college from high school. She was on the edge of the woman’s movement. She went to Hood College and then to Antioch Putney for her Master’s degree. She went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education for a Certificate of Advanced Study.
She entered adminstration because a principal pointed out to her that she saw a bigger picture than just her classroom. She was a Federal Project administrator; a principal and Assistant Superintendent and then a Superintendent. She had retired before she came to Vermont; but she couldn’t stay retired and is now Superintendent. Her goals in her new role are to improve student achievement and communication between the principals and directors; SVU school boards and with the teachers and the community.
Cathy resides in Bennington.
Brian McKenna
Brian graduated from Mount Anthony Union High School in 2000, and went on to attain his bachelor's degree at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Upon graduation, Brian accepted a position as an equities analyst with Credit Suisse, in London. He returned to Bennington with his wife, Jennifer, in 2006 to join the family firm.
Brian is an involved member of his community and is currently an active participant with many of the Bennington Chamber of Commerce's events, the Better Bennington Corporation's Young Professionals Group, and also the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Vermont.
Brian holds high professional standards for himself and is pursuing the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional certification.
Carrel Moore Scholarship
Born and brought up in Bennington.
David Newell
David J. Newell is President of Wills Insurance Inc.
Joined Wills Insurance in 1979. Before that I was executive director of the Bennington Chamber of Commerce from 1976-79.
Became a Bennington Rotarian in 1976. President of the club in 1985.
BA from Dickinson College; Carlisle; Pa. 1973
MA from Univ of Pennsylvania in 1975
Three children. Wife is Carol Newell. Reside in Shaftsbury
Mike Nigro
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Tom Paquin
Tom owns T&M Enterprises in Shaftsbury, Vermont. Tom has been an active Rotarian for many years.
Sarah Perrin
Sarah is active in many organizations including the Board of CAT-TV and the Bennington Young Professionals. Sarah is currently running for the Bennington Select Board because at the Food Truck Festival she saw people engaged and realized that activities like this make a difference in a community. She wants to help the town build off the energy of the Putnam Project.
Sarah sees herself as a listener. People want to be heard from and, as she says, "You learn so much more listening to them." What she likes about Rotary is the team aspect of everyone working together for one main goal, whatever it is, at a particular time. She also thinks the speakers are always so great. She continues to listen and to learn.
Bob Plunkett
Married to the former Eileen Kinney, of Bennington, for 36 years. 2 adult children: Matt and Robert. Robert is a Deputy State's Attorney in Bennington. Matt is a greens keeper at Equinox C.C. and a substitute teacher in the local schools. Eileen teaches at the Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing after a 12 year career as a nurse with the State of VT. Health Dept.
I have been in banking for over 35 years, 31 of those years with the Chittenden Bank. Interests include: golf, traveling; low impact exercising and spending time with family. Have lived in Bennington for the past 28 years and besides working, have volunteered my time with various organizations: Rotary, Bennington Museum Board, Chamber of Commerce (years ago), BCIC.
I'm really looking forward to retirement so I can spend more time with my family and finally put a dent in that "honey do list".
Jane Radocchia
I am an architect. I have been working on old houses for more than 40 years; repairing; restoring and expanding them. Understanding why they were built that way is my avocation. I've been writing about old houses - vernacular architecture - since the 1980's. These days I write about my research on my blog: www.jgrarchitect.blogspot.com.
My husband; Tony; and I live on a 215 year old farm in Bennington; my office is in a shed attached to the hay barn. Two of our children and their families live here too. Our barn; Abruzzi Stables; teaches riding and driving; and trains Morgan horses.
I was raised in Exeter; NH. Tony and I lived in Andover; MA for over 30 years before we came to Bennington.
My degrees are from Oberlin College and MIT.
Betsy Rathbun-Gunn International Chair
A former teacher; Betsy is responsible for developing and implementing the four major components for the Head Start Program: health; education; social services, and parent development. Her additional duties include budget development; local and statewide community networking on early childhood programs; and supervision of The UCS Infant Toddler Center and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bennington County.
Kristin Reed
Kristin Reed is a retired CPA, with years of valuable experience in providing tax and financial planning services to individuals and small business owners in southern Vermont.
After 18 years as a managing partner of Fisk Reed and Love, a CPA practice providing tax planning and compliance services in Bennington, VT, Kristin sold her interest and started
Financial Planning for Independence, Inc., a Fee-Only financial planning and financial education firm located in Bennington, VT.
Kristin's passion for working with individual clients and
offering educational programs had left her little time to do the day to day management of her business. By joining Langtree in the Bennington, VT office, she now devotes 100% of her time to
clients while maintaining her educational business through Financial Planning for Independence.
Kristin graduated from the University of CT in 1976, with a Bachelor's degree in
Psychology, obtained her CPA license in 1989 and her CFP® certification in 2001.
She is a member of the Financial Planning Association, the Garrett Planning Network,
as well as the American Institute of CPAs and the Vermont Society of CPAs, where she is a Past-President.
In her free time, Kristin loves skiing, hiking, traveling and cooking. She also is a life-long supporter and volunteer advisor to local child care centers. Kristin volunteers for many community events,
including local Rotary projects and truly enjoys the time she sets aside to visit with family and friends.
Rod Rodman
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Mary Rogers Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Mary grew up in Wilmington
Delaware, which was bigger than
Bennington, and close to Philadelphia.
She went to the University of
Delaware as an undergraduate and
did graduate work at Virginia Poly
Tech which was completed at the
University of Delaware.
Mary and her second husband, Mark,
have been married for eight years.
They built their home on Matt Drive
in North Bennington. seven years ago.
Mary has a son, Philip, from her
first marriage
Mary's passions are gardening and
running. She is starting to get into
Yoga. She was an avid reader and is
starting again, enjoying histories.
Mary joined Rotary because she
wanted to be involved in the town
that she considers the best in the
country. Her primary goal is to get
to know who is who and what are
the issues and what are the needs
and what can be done to help people.
Although Mary feels you shouldn't
bite off more than you can chew,
she has many good ideas for
service above self in terms of both
the young and older people. We
look forward to working with her
on some of these ideas.
Gerald Rogo
Dana Rozycki Past President
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Kathy Sollien
Kathy is a native of Texas who relocated to Bennington with her husband Alan in 1990 and has never looked back. Staying active in her community by way of Rotary; the Better Bennington Corp and the Chamber of Commerce has kept her busy and in the middle of what is happening in Bennington. She is a Real Estate Broker and co owner of RE/MAX Maple Leaf Realty.
Jonah Spivak
Member Bio. - Coming Soon!
Jim Thibodeau
Jim owns the local State Farm Office in Bennington. Jim is a very active Rotarian. He lives in North Bennington with his family.
Beth Wallace
Beth was born and raised in Shaftsbury, Vermont. A graduate of Mount Anthony High School in 2003, Beth earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Vermont in 2007. After college, Beth spent a short time living in New Jersey before returning to the Green Mountains to start a family.
A licensed elementary and early childhood education teacher, Beth was raised by social workers and ultimately found her calling as the Family and Community Partnership Manager at Bennington County Head Start/Early Head Start. Beth enjoys connecting people, organizations and businesses to maximize
positive social impact in her community.
Beth is involved in many community clubs and organizations including Bennington Rotary Club, Second Congregational Church of Bennington, Shires Young Professionals, Hale Mountain Fish and Game Club, and formerly served as the Chair of the Southshire Community School Board of Directors.
In her free time, Beth loves traveling with her daughter, reading and running with her yellow Labrador retriever.
Vicki Wilson
Vicki is a lifelong native of Vermont. She joined Rotary in 2014 when she left an administrative job in real estate and began her career in real estate sales which allowed her more flexibility with her time and commitments. She is a Past President of the club and is currently on the PR and Rotaract committees. One of her favorite things about Rotary is the way she and the Club can contribute to not only the local community but nationally and internationally in large and small ways. She is currently a Sale Agent at Maple Leaf Realty, which is owned by another or our Rotarians, Kathy Sollien.
Dan Zwynenburg
Dan owns Hallmark Cards & Gifts in Bennington. Dan is also a proud member of the Green Mountain Car Club.
Jay Zwynenburg
Jay owns Jays Art Shop & Frame Gallery inn Downtown Bennington. Jay has been a Rotarian for many years and enjoys the fellowship.