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Obituaries 8-7-07

Dorothy E. Picknell

VERGENNES— Dorothy E. Picknell, 90 died Friday July 27, 2007 at Porter Medical Center in Middlebury.

    She was born July 8, 1917 the daughter of Clarence and Elizabeth Picknell.

    She leaves her adopted family Tim and Barbara Buskey of Vergennes, and caregivers at Vergennes Residential Care Home.

    A memorial service was held on Friday August 3rd at Vergennes Residential Care Home 34 North St. Vergennes, VT 05491.

CARLTON BEIL

VERGENNES— Carlton Bernard Beil, naturalist, educator, and museum professional, died peacefully on Tuesday July 31, 2007 at his daughter's home in Vergennes, Vermont. He was 99 years old. Born in Manhattan on January 7, 1908 to Franz Beil and Berthe Bourgeois Beil, Carlton moved to Staten Island with his widowed mother and brother Alois (Allen) in 1916. He attended Curtis High School, and left at the age of 16 to support his mother, completing his secondary education at night. Over the years, he acquired encyclopedic knowledge of botany, geology, paleontology, astronomy, botany and biology through reading, attending lectures, and working at museums, and through years afield in the woods and meadows of the island. He also took courses at Wagner College, University of Rochester, Goddard College, and College of Staten Island. Although people often called him "Professor," he never completed a college degree, and referred to himself simply as a naturalist, a person who observes and studies plants, animals, and the natural world around him. Over the years, he emerged as a respected champion of open spaces and natural areas on Staten Island. In 2006, in a fitting culmination of his lifelong love for the island's wildlife and history, Beil's home of 50 years, the landmarked Poillon-Akerly-Olmsted House, was dedicated as the Olmsted-Beil House Park by the New York City Department of Parks.

    Beil regarded 1923 as a landmark year in his life. That year he joined the Woodcraft League, a co-educational youth program developed by naturalist and author Ernest Thompson Seton, who later was instrumental in founding the Boy Scouts of America. The Woodcraft combination of outdoor skills and Native American culture set the pattern for Beil's life and values, and brought him into the museum world as well.

    The Woodcraft League often met at the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, and Beil joined the SIIAS staff in 1926. He worked closely with the museum's founders, including historian Charles W. Leng, entomologist William T. Davis (who identified and named the 17-year cicada), botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton (founder of the New York Botanical Garden), and geologist Arthur Hollick. A heart murmur caused by rheumatic fever barred him from military service during World War II, and 1944, he enrolled at Rochester University and took a position at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Two years later, he returned to New York City and joined the Education Department of the American Museum of Natural History, where he worked until retirement in 1973.

    Declaring that he had spent enough years behind a desk, Carlton enthusiastically returned to the outdoors, presenting nature programs, field walks, and Native American programs at Clay Pit Pond State Park and Preserve, Gateway National Park, High Rock Park, Blue Heron Park, Eibs Pond, and many others. He served as a trustee of Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, on the board of the Staten Island Children's Museum during their formative years, and was a member of the Staten Island Geological Society and for many years President of the Staten Island Chess Club. He was a tireless and enthusiastic advocate for the preservation and protection of natural areas, and always presented eloquent testimony to the significance of the wildlife and habitat that they encompassed. "We need lakes, forests, and open meadows," Beil commented. "The need for natural areas is so deeply embedded in the human psyche that you can scarcely define it."

    In 1948, Beil married Vermont teacher Louise Eleanor Abbott. In 1955, he and his wife and their three daughters moved into the Poillon-Akerly-Olmsted House in Eltingville, a French-Huguenot farmhouse surrounded by century-old trees planted by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture. His three daughters followed his footsteps into museum work. In the late 1980s, when his wife's health began to fail, Bell began to spend summers in Vermont, working as an educator at the Shelburne Museum. By the time he celebrated his 70th year of museum work in 1996, his granddaughter had also entered the museum field, and his grandson later became caretaker of a historic house. Beil spent his final years at his daughter's home in Vergennes, Vermont, where he moved in 2000 to recover from the effects of a stroke. He became an enthusiastic participant at Project Independence in Middlebury, where he found chess partners from 7 to 87 years of age, enjoyed getting to know international students, and was honored by one GED graduate for helping tutor her in English vocabulary. His family is grateful to the many caregivers who were also his friends, and enriched the final years of Carlton's life.

    Beil was predeceased by his beloved wife Louise in 1992. He is survived by his daughter Carlotta Bell DeFillo, son-in-law Don DeFillo, grandson Mark DeFillo, and granddaughter Carli DeFillo; his daughter Eloise Beil, his daughter Felicity Beil Friedenthal and son-in-law Eric Friedenthal.

    A memorial service was held at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Burlington on Monday, August 6 at noon, with a reception following in the church parlor. A memorial service at the Unitarian Church of Staten Island will be scheduled at a later date. For those who wish, donations in Carlton's memory can be made to Addison County Home Health and Hospice, Elderly Services (Project Independence), or one's favorite charity.

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