Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Harold Posselt

Harold Posselt

KENT — Hal Posselt, 76, passed away in Connecticut on Oct. 1, 2023. Hal was born in Sharon on April 5, 1947, to Oscar and Lisbeth (Griesser) Posselt, who both left Germany in 1930. He leaves his wife, Edith (Edie) Parker Posselt, and many nephews, nieces, cousins and good friends.

Hal grew up in Kent and attended Kent Center School, South Kent School and graduated from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in 1965. He received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut in 1969. As a senior, Hal participated in UConn’s first Urban Teaching Program in Hartford before student teaching and receiving Masters degrees in Counseling and Education.

Hal met his beloved wife, Edie, in 1977 when they both worked as guidance counselors in North Conway, New Hampshire. They married in 1980 and undertook a partnership of adventure and collaboration for forty-three years, welcoming family, friends and former students into their lives.

As a teacher and guidance counselor in schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Hal was known as a caring and involved educator. Students sought his advice and guidance in planning for college and work and getting through the minefield of teenage life. He was an advocate for students and is remembered as kind and understanding. At the same time, he was direct and uncompromising regarding the need for commitment, hard work and planning. Hal wasn’t judgmental or opinionated but argued for a kinder, more inclusive viewpoint in general. Many of his former students kept in touch with him for more than forty years. After his official retirement, Hal tutored young refugee students in English as a Second Language.

Hal is remembered as having made a difference at Concord High School, Kennett Jr./Sr. High, Bow High School and Broken Ground School in New Hampshire and MacKay School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. During his years as an educator, Hal lived in Fitchburg, and Snowville, Concord, Canterbury and Portsmouth, New Hampshire before moving to Storrs in 2020.

An enthusiastic outdoorsman, Hal loved being active and encouraged others to discover the joy of hiking, skiing, rock-climbing and biking. He loved traveling and enjoyed visiting relatives in Germany and the western U.S., and friends in Australia, Venezuela, Switzerland and elsewhere. Hal was a spirited UConn basketball fan and found pleasure in the music and other offerings of the college campus. He loved cats, Siamese in particular.

In addition to his wife, Edie, Hal is survived by his sister Catherine Posselt Bachrach (Bill) of Kent, their daughters Jaime Bachrach (Tim Clew) and Andrea Bachrach Mata (Keith Morse) as well as by nephews Theo Posselt (Doug Ng), Daniel Posselt and Abram Barker. His sister, Elisabeth Posselt Barker, and brother, Ted Posselt, predeceased him.

Lakeville Journal

Latest News

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Doug Tallamy’s work in progress: saving the planet one backyard at a time

Windacre, a 25-acre property in Millerton will be the site of “Work in Progress,” an afternoon with acclaimed entomologist, New York Times bestselling author and Homegrown National Park co-founder Doug Tallamy.

Provided

For nearly three decades, Doug Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, has studied the intricate relationships between native plants, insects, birds and the ecosystems that sustain them. His books, including “Bringing Nature Home” and “Nature’s Best Hope,” have helped shift the conversation about conservation from something that happens primarily in parks and preserves to something ordinary people can practice on the land around them.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, Tallamy will bring that conversation to Windacre in Millerton for “Work in Progress: Toward Native Fields,” an outdoor gathering exploring both the possibilities and the complications of restoring private land for biodiversity.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Celebrating Dick Hermans’ life built around community

Celebrating Dick Hermans’ life built around community

Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton\u2019s Main Street in 1985.

Provided
No matter what I’ve done, I’m trying to be useful to the communities I’m associated with.
— Dick Hermans

When Dick Hermans receives the Estabrook Community Leadership Award on Oct. 11, he will accept it for a lifetime of work that has taken many forms: bookseller, radio host, school board member, advocate for the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, business owner, volunteer and, perhaps most importantly, a person who has consistently looked for ways to be useful to the communities around him.

The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News will present Hermans with the 2026 award at the annual Jubilee celebration at the Sharon Playhouse. The award honors outstanding leadership in community service and was inspired by Mary Lou and Robert Estabrook, former owners of the newspapers who believed that strengthening a community extended well beyond the work of publishing a newspaper.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Tending the Fire: Homelands PowWow brings Mohican culture home to the Berkshires

Members of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe at Homelands PowWow in 2025.

Joeseph Plante New Media Storytellers
Our goal is to continue building an annual gathering that honors the history, culture and traditions of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans in their original Homelands.


For the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican people, the Berkshires are not simply a place to visit. They are ancestral homelands.

Keep ReadingShow less
community
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity

Ancram Center’s “A Number” doubles questions of identity
Ledbetter (left) and Wojda (right) on the set of “A Number” at Ancram Center for the Arts.
Jeff Mousseau

How would you feel if you found out you weren’t the only you — if there was an exact replica of you? What if you found out that you’d been cloned? Would you believe that you’re the real you? Would you suspect you might be a copy of the original? How could you be sure anything about your life was real? These are some of the questions posed in Caryl Churchill’s play “A Number,” opening at the Ancram Center for the Artson Oct. 1.

Churchill was born in London in 1938 and has been hailed by the theaterl world as one of the strongest voices of her time to take on sexual politics and feminist themes. Her works garner pointedly considered analysis from the highest levels of theatrical intellectualism. Basically, it’s about as far from “The Lion King” as you can get. While she’s experimented with dance theater in the past, “A Number” is much more stripped down, highlighting Churchill’s chosen themes and the skills of both actors on stage.

Keep ReadingShow less
performances

Dispatches from the Farm

Dispatches from the Farm

Adamah Farm crew members planning out the day’s tasks on a late September day.

Janna Siller

“Dispatches from the farm” is a new, periodic column offering a firsthand look at the rhythms, challenges and rewards of farming through the eyes of a local farmer.

The thing about plants is that they can’t get up and move. When a storm like last weekend’s nor’easter threatens to roll through, you can’t just round everybody up and settle them safely on the sofa for movie night.

Keep ReadingShow less
dispatches from the farm

Pinchas Zukerman brings an all-Beethoven program to Hotchkiss

Pinchas Zukerman brings an all-Beethoven program to Hotchkiss

Pinchas Zukerman to perform at Hotchkiss Oct. 4

Cheryl Mazak

The passion, drama and energy of Beethoven will fill Katherine M. Elfers Hall at The Hotchkiss School on Oct. 4, when world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman is joined by pianist Shai Wosner for a special recital.

The 4:30 p.m. program at the Esther Eastman Music Center will feature three of Beethoven’s celebrated violin sonatas: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23; Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24, “Spring”; and Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30.

Keep ReadingShow less
concerts
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.