BENJAMIN LABAREE Obituary

LABAREE, Benjamin Woods Professor Emeritus, Williams College Benjamin Woods Labaree died peacefully on August 30, 2021 at the age of 94 in Topsham, Maine, with his wife of 62 years Linda at his side. He was born on July 21, 1927 in New Haven, Connecticut, and was the second son of Yale University professor Leonard Woods Labaree and Elizabeth Calkins Labaree. Throughout his long and happy life, Ben was fond of recounting stories from his boyhood days in New Haven and summers on Nantucket where he developed life-long skills as a sailor and a love of the sea. Ben attended The Hotchkiss School where he compiled scrapbooks of news clippings during the war in an early display of his archival skills. He served in the U.S. Navy before graduating from Yale University in 1950. Ben's nearly 50 year teaching career began at Phillips Exeter Academy, after which he earned a Ph.D in History at Harvard University. His thesis was later published as Patriots and Partisans: The Merchants of Newburyport in 1962. In 1963 Ben was appointed Dean of Williams College, Williamstown, MA. He combined administrative and teaching duties with research in colonial Massachusetts and New England. His published works include The Boston Tea Party (1964), America's Nation Time, 1607-1789 (1972), and Empire or Independence, 1770-1776: A British-American Dialogue on the Coming of the American Revolution with British historian Ian Christie (1976). Over the course of the late 1960s and 1970s, Ben's scholarly interests and teaching focused increasingly on maritime and environmental history. Much of that work culminated in publication of America and the Sea: A Maritime History, a collaborative work published in the 1990s. Having spent summers at Mystic Seaport Museum's Munson Institute directing a graduate program in American Maritime Studies, Ben started to take students to Mystic for "winter study" courses that influenced Ben's ambition to offer a semester-long program. Ben and students sketched out plans for what is now the Ocean and Coastal Studies Semester of Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum (Williams-Mystic Program) on napkins at a Pittsfield, MA Dunkin' Donuts shop in the winter of 1973. A first cohort of students from several colleges arrived in fall 1977. Over the next twelve years, Ben worked tirelessly with many others to establish a vibrant and academically rigorous interdisciplinary experience for undergraduates from all walks of life. Generations of Williams-Mystic students, beginning with the inaugural "Leeward Railers," remember Ben as an inspiring teacher and mentor, pioneering educator, and intrepid sailor who seemed impervious to sea-sickness even in the roughest of sea conditions. From 1989 to 1991, Ben returned to Williams College as Director of the Center for Environmental Studies. He retired as Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies in 1991 and settled with Linda in Amesbury, MA, close to the 200-year old Lowell's Boat Shop on the Merrimack River. Ben was instrumental in preserving this iconic wooden boat building shop and participated in an ambitious endeavor to create a non-profit working museum with a preservation easement, facilitated by the office of the late Senator Edward Kennedy. Ben also continued to teach and gave dozens of lectures on maritime and New England subjects to benefit area institutions. In 2016, Ben and Linda made their final move to Topsham, Maine. For all of his accomplishments as an educator, administrator, and author, however, Ben's first love was his family (including many dogs). Ever since 1965, when Ben and Linda bought a former saltwater farm, Vinalhaven, Maine has always been a centerpiece of family life and an inspiration to the entire family. That rural setting and his infectious optimism spurred a propensity for unlikely "projects," such as constructing sheds, wharfs, and stone walls. The family still chuckles in recalling the trail of tools left behind. His broad grin, good cheer and outgoing sense of humor extended to anyone fortunate enough to cross his path. Ben and Linda's 62 year marriage remains a source of inspiration for his children Ben, Jr. of Bethesda, MD, Jonathan of Cumberland, ME, and Sarah of Divonne-Les-Bains, France and their spouses Alison Snow, Lalla Carothers, and Craig Churchill. "Poppa" was also a devoted grandfather to Peter, Lydia, Olivia, Will, Danny, and Ben who remember him for - among other things, "napkin ring contests" on the kitchen table in Vinalhaven and his silly but sincere Valentine's Day cards. Other survivors include Ben's nephew and niece, David Labaree and Elizabeth Labaree of Northford, CT.

Published by Boston Globe from Sep. 13 to Sep. 14, 2021.