Bennett Miller was one of the first people I connected with after moving to The Village At Rockville (TVAR), a retirement community in Rockville, MD, in March of 2022. We met owing to our mutual enthusiasm for playing chess. Bennet had written a notice on TVAR’s computer portal asking if anyone was interested in forming a chess club. I responded by email as soon as I saw it and Bennett phoned me shortly thereafter. We agreed to meet the following Tuesday morning in TVAR’s well used Game Room.
That was the first of our regular Tuesday morning chess games. Bennett and I had both been playing chess for some years and had reached a level of “advanced intermediate”. The important thing was that we were evenly matched, and our games were almost always intensely close. We were soon joined by another resident, Ann Birk, who had played in her younger days and was now eager to resume. Ann is a retired psychiatrist and wrote a wonderful portal posting for our nascent club, inviting residents to “get their neurons firing” by taking up chess. Ann even offered to teach the basic rules of the game to beginners. We soon had four or five new people joining us in the Game Room for our ongoing Tuesday morning chess club. Another fine player, Everette Larson, joined us shortly after he moved to TVAR. Marcia Mattocks and Betty Hess also became TVAR Chess Club regulars.
Win, lose, or draw, I always enjoyed playing with Bennett. He was a warm human being, interested in getting to know each of us beyond the realm of chess. He invited my spouse Andrea and me to join him and his wife Pat for dinner a number of times. As newcomers to TVAR, Andrea and I welcomed the opportunity to meet another couple. Andrea especially appreciated Bennett’s sense of humor and roaring laugh.
Bennett was very proud of his family and very connected to his two children and four grandchildren. He spoke glowingly of his grandson whom he had taught to play chess at an early age and who later beat his grandfather regularly. He was also a devoted husband, very attentive to Pat when she encountered some of her own health issues.
Bennett was a retired astrophysicist who had been involved in developing three different companies. He attended Columbia University as an undergraduate and went on to earn a Masters and PhD there before going on to teach at Ohio State University, as well as serving as a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy for ten years.
I was bereft when told by an ICU nurse that Bennett had passed away last Friday morning, October 20. He will be dearly remembered by all who knew him.
We arrived a bit early on our late morning flight from Baltimore to Manchester, NH yesterday. Our old friend from Takoma Park, Larry Drake, picked us up there. It was only about an hour flight from BWI. My spouse Andrea and I had to sit in the middle seats of separate rows on the sold-out flight. We were both near the front of the Southwest 737 flight though, so we were among the first to disembark.
It was easy navigating the “boutique” Manchester airport, spanking new in its design and execution. Larry soon arrived in his comfortable Ford C-Max Hybrid for the 40-mile drive east on Rt. 101 to Portsmouth. It was a mostly cloudy day, with temperatures in the mid-50’s. Traffic was light, and we were able to chat comfortably, Larry serving as an excellent tour guide. He and his wife Joan are longtime Democratic Party activists. He had just retired from a long stint as his county’s party chair. He noted that Rt. 101 had been completed during the tenure of then Governor Jean Shaneen, a strong Democratic leader who had gone on to be elected as a U.S. Senator for three terms.
Larry’s wife of 33 years, Joan Jacobs, is a longtime friend of Andrea’s. They became close friends and political allies while both were living in Takoma Park, MD in the 1980’s and 90’s. Larry had been a classmate of Andrea’s at Oberlin College in the class of 1973. After Joan and Larry had divorced from their first spouses, Andrea had served as a go-between to introduce them. They got married in 1990, just two years after Andrea and I had tied the knot. We had recently re-encountered Joan and Larry at the Class of 1973 50th year reunion in Oberlin, OH back in May. There they’d invited us to come for a visit to their home in Portsmouth, where they had moved after retiring from federal government jobs in 2006.
As we entered Portsmouth proper, we noticed slews of political yard signs. Like our native Rockville, MD, the city was having its municipal elections for City Council. We later learned that Larry co-hosted a weekly radio show on a small, local Pacifica network station. He was in the process of interviewing the candidates on his show. Andrea and I were similarly involved in our Rockville elections, so the feeling of being political allies continued to be nurtured.
We pulled into their lovely townhouse community in the outskirts of Portsmouth around 2pm. After getting settled in our upstairs rooms, we went down to join our hosts for a simple, delicious lunch. It was easy reconnecting with our old friends. After our good food and conversation, Andrea and I retired to our upstairs quarters for a late afternoon nap.
Andrea and I went for a nice walk in the early evening. The “Tidewatch” development is quite pedestrian-friendly even without sidewalks. Its townhouses are joined together in groups of three, with each group separated by open “green spaces” which retain a rural New England feel. The complex is arranged along the full flowing Sagamore “Creek” (actually a substantial river), with a number of boat docks and kayak entry points.
That evening, Joan and Larry gave us a tour of the involuted harbor area of the city, driving us over bridges and causeways, pointing out historic sites and lighthouses. A city of 20,000 residents, Portsmouth was celebrating its 400th anniversary of English settlement. The celebration also included the Wabanaki confederacy of native tribes who had lived there for millennia before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, MA in 1620.
Even though a large Air Force base near town had closed, the U.S. Navy’s large shipyards were still fully active, serving as a primary maintenance facility for the U.S. n nuclear submarine fleet.
We drove through the narrow streets of the downtown area, bustling with theater and restaurant traffic.
We would return downtown during daylight two days later for a pedestrian tour. Our evening excursion culminated with a delicious Mexican meal at the Vida Cantina, a longtime favorite restaurant of our hosts.
Wednesday, 10/11
Today was our planned excursion to Gloucester, MA to see the “Edward Hopper In Cape Ann” exhibit at the Cape Ann Museum. Our timed-entry tickets were for 1pm so we had most of the morning to relax and take another long stroll around the Tidewatch community.
The fall is still in an early stage here, with colored foliage not much more advanced than back in Maryland. I took some photos of unfamiliar flora including the plentiful purple New England asters and a Siberian Crabapple Tree out front fruiting fully with red, pea-sized berries. Joan and Andrea had gone out before me, and I caught up with them near the edge of Sagamore Creek where we found a bench to sit and enjoy the scene.
It was about an hour’s drive south on I-95 and then east and north through Cape Ann to the historic fishing town of Gloucester. Larry drove the four of us and Joan navigated up front. It was a bright, sunny day and the midday sun showed off the town in all its simple seaside splendor.
The painters Edward Hopper and his wife Josephine (Jo) Nivison Hopper spent a good part of the 1920’s living and working among the small artistic community that had discovered the rich visual offerings of Gloucester and its greater Cape Ann environs. It was an interesting drive through the old town to the relatively small Cape Ann Museum in the downtown area. Parking was a bit of a challenge, but we lucked out in finding the last available spot in the paid lot across the street.
Andrea had seen a television show about the exhibit and was taken with it. Our host Joan is a talented artist herself and shared Andrea’s enthusiasm for visiting the exhibit. Larry and I were happy to join them. I truly enjoyed the size and scope of the exhibit — about 60 paintings and drawings, all from the earliest days of Hopper’s prolific career, all painted during his extended seasonal visits to Gloucester. Hopper’s particular interest as a painter was the play of light, shadow and wind on the buildings, ships, and landscapes of the Atlantic coast. There are few human beings, yet the paintings of houses and ships all imply their dominating presence in the natural world.
Hopper met his wife in Gloucester when they were both making their way as creative artists. Jo Hopper has only a few of her works in the exhibit, but they give evidence of unique artistic vision with talented execution.
We spent some time touring the downtown section of Gloucester afterwards, seeing some of the still standing structures that Edward Hopper had painted. We then drove a short distance to the waterfront and saw the iconic sculpture of a Gloucester fisherman steering his craft out to sea.
Our Gloucester visit was capped by a late lunch at a fine Portuguese-Azorean restaurant not far from downtown. It was a memorable seafood meal for me, with a delicious halibut filet cooked and served with small, buttery potatoes in a tomato sauce within a small cast iron pan. The skies were still clear for our drive back to Portsmouth, with a slight detour through the picturesque town of Ipswich, MA.
Thursday, 10/12
Another delightful day. The mild fall weather continued with clear skies and temperatures in the low 60s. Once again Andrea and I had a lovely morning stroll along Sagamore Creek, taking in the acrobatic flight of the numerous gulls, enjoying the turning colors in the foliage, taking time to just sit and be quiet on a favored bench. The serenity of the mornings helped us to better process the horrendous slaughter and deprivation that were simultaneously occurring in Israel and Gaza. Joan and Larry had joined us for some sobering conversations about those events since we arrived. As politically involved people, we were scouring the Boston Globe and New York Times daily in addition to evening news on CNN and MSNBC. The four of us were united in our sense of grief and outrage at Hamas’ original acts of terrorism, as well as a sense of empathy and protectiveness for innocent Palestinian civilians living in Gaza. We had taken in the fact that over 40% of the Gaza population were children, and were equally aghast at the high numbers of children reported killed or wounded by Israeli retaliatory bombings.
Our car excursion that afternoon was to the quaint little seaside town of Ogunquit, Maine – about 30 miles north of Portsmouth. The town had a reputation for its seaside beauty as well as an active arts and cultural scene. Our principal destination was its Museum of American Art, sitting on a rise above a rocky beach on the edge of town.
The relatively small museum itself is largely the creation of the painter and architect Henry Strater. Strater was at the center of a vibrant arts community in Ogunquit for many decades. He was also an art collector, and the museum is filled with works by a number of well-known 20th century American painters.
We drove into the heart of town for lunch after our museum explorations. Joan and Larry had a favorite seafood restaurant there, right on the water – Barnacle Billy’s. The food was once again memorably delicious and we also enjoyed watching the flight of cormorants, gulls, and even a blue heron, just outside the window.
Afterwards, we went for a long stroll along the ocean on a paved path called the Marginal. The sea views were stunning, as the coast takes a dramatic curve at that point and we could see all the way to Kennebunkport, 12 miles up the coast. As the four of us were sitting together on a bench overlooking the ocean, two middle-aged men approached us with three dogs in tow. They excitedly told us that we were sitting on the very spot where they had exchanged wedding vows ten years earlier. We were happy to oblige their request for one of us to take their picture there.
Friday, 10/13
Our original plan had been to drive up into the mountains that day before Joan and Larry would drop us off in Manchester for our 5p flight. But we were all bit weary and decided to make a last-day jaunt into historic downtown Portsmouth instead.
Our first stop was the downtown’s Visitor Center, which housed an exhibition of
“Portsmouth in 101 Objects” – various objects of art and/or utility as representations of the city’s 400 years of European settlement. Portsmouth is filled with markers and mementos of revolutionary war battles and heroes. The exhibit included some objects from that era, but a great number of others from pre- and post-revolutionary war times as well. The Center also housed a small collection of colorful African American art, including one painting on wood called “There Is Still Hope”.
Walking from these exhibits, we came upon a sculpture court that was actually a memorial to African American deceased whose caskets were discovered recently at a downtown corner being excavated.
We had a delicious lunch at a classy little French restaurant, La Maison Navarre, on Congress St. as our farewell to Portsmouth. Later that afternoon, Larry drove us back over to Manchester Airport with full sunshine on the changing foliage. The three of us had a spirited interesting conversation about our shared experience as exchange students in our younger days.
This trip was definitely worthwhile, as much for the renewal of our friendships with Joan and Larry as for the new sights and shared experiences of our three full days together in New England.
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