As economy developers, planners and community leaders, we are dedicated to the betterment of our community. And we build upon the good works of others.
Three colleagues – and three of their “wins” – are the focus of this tribute. Each win was toward a better future for their community, and was realized working alongside many others. Sadly, each of these good people left us in the past year.
Roger Carlton Hawk
[Obituary]
“Throughout his professional life, Roger was a member of and active officer in many of the professional planning organizations. He invested considerable effort in PlanNH, an organization committed to sustainability in the built environment.”
Broad Street Parkway – Nashua, NH
The Saturday before Christmas, the long-planned and anticipated Broad Street Parkway opened in Nashua. It is something we rarely see in a New England city, a new road. And one of the people who wanted to see it was my colleague Roger Hawk. My assignment was to take Roger to see anything he wanted, as long as we returned in a couple of hours, as he would be getting weak by then. It was our last visit. Roger’s cancer had made him tired and nearly inaudible, and it would prevail in a couple of weeks.
We found the new Parkway, and as planned, it was already working well; it short-cuts through traffic, while opening up a new river vista, thus enhancing the whole riverfront area; a success.
Roger left the city’s Community Development job more than 10 years earlier, but he still felt a sense of community pride. So this new road was his choice of destinations. Not a scenic vista, not a museum or concert hall, but the chance to see something he had a small but essential role in making happen for a community he served.
Dennis C. Delay
[Obituary]
“Dennis Delay probably knew more about the New Hampshire economy than everybody,” says fellow economist Russ Thibeault.
A Better New Hampshire Economy
As an inherently modest person, Dennis would be the last person to take credit for any economic success during his years as an economist and forecaster at PSNH, the Workforce Opportunity Council, and the Public Policy Institute. But what he did was to make it possible for others to make better economic decisions. Countless trade groups, legislative committees, town planners, and budgeters found his ability to find key indicators of trends – and present that simply – to be an essential first step in making better decisions.
Economic forecasts soon become history, so we will not be rereading his past forecasts. But we are realizing the benefits of his unique ability to communicate the good news from the bad news, thus helping people, institutions and communities to choose wisely.
Below is a presentation on The State of the Manchester Region as presented to the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce by Dennis Delay in September of 2015.
Jeffrey Haydn Taylor
[Obituary]
“We believe that Jeff – for good reason – has been at more ribbon cuttings for buildings that almost didn’t make it than any other person in New Hampshire.”–New Hampshire Preservation Alliance
Mountain View Grand, Whitefield, NH
At the 2002 ribbon-cutting for the grandly redeveloped Mountain View Grand, the podium was set-up to seat the people who had helped; it was a very full podium. Jeff sat up-front, I sat in the back.
This amazing restoration required the partnership of two unlikely forces; an unstoppable entrepreneur and an unstoppable bureaucrat. Jeff was that creative bureaucrat, weaving the many – over a dozen – financing programs together into a package that, along with the private investment, made this once-hopeless redevelopment bankable.
Today the Mountain View Grand Resort remains a source of rest for the traveler, and source of pride for Jeff’s North Country and the state.
These good works serve as a model, and these colleagues are missed. May their examples help us as we continue our good works in the years ahead.
Stuart Arnett redevelop hometowns through his company Arnett Development Group in Concord, NH, and is a founding member of the Better Future Alliance L3C, and has served as New Hampshire’s Director of Economic Development. He is the youngest of five sugar-fed boomers. You can reach him with your suggestions for city sites in need of remedy here.
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