PRESIDENT
David Miller
dhmny@aol.com

TREASURER
Michael Frazier
michaelfrazier@earthlink.net

SECRETARY
Connie Lown

TRUSTEES
David Byars
Eve D'Ambra

Diana Depardo-Minsky


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Twenty years ago, I decided to trade my birthplace of New York City for country living after spending my honeymoon house hunting in Dutchess County. Our first house was in Milan but wintering at the top of a hill with a 4oo-foot driveway to plow and Jack Frost freezing our doorbell, so that it would ring in the wee hours of the morning, left me hankering for “city” life again. I had no idea the dark could be so dark in the middle of the night. So, the following spring we moved into the heart of the very unscary Village of Rhinebeck and gave up our axe that had been used for protection.

My last 30 years of employment were spent as both the Director of IT at a CUNY campus and owner and landlord of a 3 family 125-year-old brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I spent a lot of time learning about the history of Brooklyn and historic preservation as I renovated my brownstone. I also volunteered for many years at Prospect Park.

The skills and knowledge I acquired restoring my brownstone was put to good use when we purchased our 200-year-old home in the Village. After a few years of commuting for work via Amtrak to NYC moving, I retired and decided to join the Historical Society. World history, particularly history of the various wars, has always been my favorite subject so I was very excited to have the opportunity to delve into local history. My first project was to research the history of our house. Once that project was completed, I started to tackle others. So far, I have scanned thousands of images from our collection; produced-filmed-lectured in the 90 videos in our collection; I am the editor of our quarterly newsletter and write many articles for it. Furthermore, as Chairman of the Rhinebeck Village Planning Board, I work hard to protect the entire historic district of the Village.

I simply love history. I enjoy working with the RHS board as well as all of the historians of Dutchess County. I look forward to continuing researching, scanning, filming and writing about local history for many years to come.

"I simply love history."