This profile was initially written by Gordon Hayward after an interview with Ruth Grandy. She subsequently revised the profile as you see it below.
Ruth Grandy has lived all but five or six days of her 81 years in Westminster, VT. She was born July 18, 1943 in the hospital in Walpole, New Hampshire, then adjacent to the Walpole Library on Main Street. She and her mother spent a few days in that little hospital and then went across the Connecticut River to their home in Westminster. She never left town.
"My parents had a big yellow house beside what was then King's Highway Garage, on Route 5, across the road from where Clayton Goodell's big dairy farm is today. I idolized my Dad. He could do ANYTHING. He always had a joke; he never took himself seriously. Looking back, I guess I wanted to be like him.
"When I was six, I went to the Westminster School on Sand Hill Road for first grade. There were about thirty kids in the whole school when I started there in Grade 1. For grades 2-4, I went to the old two-story school building on School Street — it was a few minutes’ walk from our home. I began the fifth grade at the new Westminster Center School and graduated from the eighth grade there. Then on to Bellows Falls High School, class of 1961. My interests were broad. I had the grades to go on to college, but no interest. I married Clayton Pearce in 1965 and we produced four children —Joseph, Janet, Anne, and Christopher.
"I began working for the Town of Westminster as a general clerk in 1971. Betty Holton was the Town Clerk. I worked for her until I got my first titled position: " lister". Over the next 37 years, until 2008, I was Tax Assessor, Assistant Zoning Administrative Officer, Animal Control Officer, Health Officer, Constable, Auditor, Town Septic Inspector. I inspected proposed construction sites and spent much time doing traffic control.
"At one point it was my job to visit people and their properties all over town and complete something called the Poll Tax Form. I made lists of all the cows, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens — any farm animals people owned. I also had to make note of any propane tanks on properties. I was a public servant. I took my job seriously and happily. I made a career out of serving my town. It was smooth.
"I was a tax assessor too — glorified title of ‘lister’. I eventually became President of the Vermont Listers and Assessors Association. In 2008 I earned the Lister of the Year Award and, in the process, got to know my way around government in Montpelier. That was also the year I retired from work with the town.
“The most important single job I ever did after leaving town employment came when I bought myself my first computer in 2016 and then had to find out how to use it properly. Having retired from employment eight years earlier as a town official, I spent parts of the next fifteen years hand copying the Land Records of the Town of Westminster and building a database of those records. I worked with about 200 years of records, beginning in about 1790, and now I have 33,067 listings of land records that will become available to the public at some point. That information will be in several three-ring binders, protected by plastic sheet protectors.
“And what do I do with my days other than volunteer to help my town? I have always been an avid game hunter, anxious to get out into the woods. Now that am 81, I realize that I have to remind myself what's involved. First, how far do I now want to walk into the woods to deer hunt? Two, how big an animal can I realistically drag back to my front lawn? Three, do I accept that in hauling a deer carcass back home I am hauling not only meat, but a whole lot of deer ticks? Fourth, I have always maintained that I would not shoot anything I had not planned to eat.
“I'm a homebody. I walk in the woods or mow my lawn with a John Deere D 130 riding mower. I have a John Deere 1025R small tractor with a frontend bucket loader (with chains in the winter) for smoothing my driveway, uprooting invasives, moving rocks, and clearing brush. I hire someone to plow my driveway and use my tractor to clean up the edges. My son put hinges on a 4' section of my deck fencing, allowing me to push the snow off my deck without having to lift any snow. The gate is to keep my grandchildren safe.
"I also love to watch the birds. Every morning a pair of Red Cardinals arrive just after I fill the bird feeder with seed — they are always the first and last birds at the feeder every day. One day I watched a mature Bald Eagle and what I believe to be her young eaglet perched on that white pine outside my living room window. When the mature eagle flew to another tree, the young bird called, scolded, and eventually flew to join her. They were probably hunting snakes in my little field. Last Spring I saw a Golden Eagle flying around. I heard a Coyote last night after months of no Coyotes around. I haven’t seen any rabbits lately.
“Two years ago, I heard a commotion out on my covered porch. I opened the door to find myself literally face-to-face with a black bear who was attempting to raid my suet feeder. It is a good idea to take the feeders in at night.
"I used to cook a lot but at 81 I don't like to eat alone in the evening. I have yogurt and coffee at breakfast, talk to my son on the phone every day, and then have a nutrition-drink for lunch. Every evening around 5:00 or so I get in my pickup and go out for dinner. I go to a variety of restaurants. By going to the same places for dinner regularly, I can meet and talk with the folks I know over dinner. I like that. And I head out dressed in a flannel shirt, LL Bean jeans and boots — expensive, but they wear well.
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.