SALISBURY — Richard Thomas Fitzgerald, 77, died Aug. 1, 2014, at his home in Venice, Fla.He was born May 22, 1937, in Melrose, Mass., the son of the late Regina (Ford) and Gerald Arthur Fitzgerald.A longtime resident of Lakeville, Dick — as he was better known to those who had him for a lawyer, a shipmate or a close friend or relative — moved to Florida upon retirement from his legal practice and the probate judgeship for the town of Salisbury. As probate judge for nearly 30 years, Dick enjoyed bipartisan Democratic and Republican support throughout his tenure. He was a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Georgetown University School of Law.Moving to Lakeville shortly after qualifying to practice law in Connecticut, Dick structured a life that had until then many changes of scene, from his birthplace in Melrose to Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware, upstate New York, the nation’s capital, Tehran and, finally, Westport, Conn. He wanted to live in a place that was rural and relatively unchanging and that provided the conditions he needed to develop deep and lasting friendships. His goal was to become a country lawyer, raise a family and enjoy boating both locally on Lakeville Lake and also on Long Island Sound. He played the piano, enjoyed music and, toward the end of his life, took great pleasure in those and other leisure activities, including oil painting and time spent on the water in Newport, R.I., and Venice, among other places.He was a gifted musician, largely self-taught, who enlivened get-togethers with his piano playing. He had a keen interest in others’ cultures and liked to travel. With his brother, Gerry, who lives in Ireland, Dick also joined a group of Irish sailors on chartered large sailing vessels to explore interesting and challenging European waters, including the Ionian, the Adriatic and the Baltic seas. He was selfless in many ways, often putting his own desires second to those of the people he loved. In 2013, he invited his brothers, son, grandson, nephew and grand-nephew on a weeklong sailing trip, circumnavigating the Caribbean island of Tortola in a 37-foot catamaran. The voyage was the trip of a lifetime, one that Dick enjoyed despite the challenges to his health at that time. His tenacity and endurance throughout his illness were extraordinary and an inspiration to those around him. He was open to others and appreciative of their attention but demanded little. Dick is survived by his son, Matthew, of Alexandria, Va.; his daughter, Anne Fitzgerald, of North Canaan; a grandson, Sipho; five granddaughters, Aida, Macie, EllaMae, Tallulah and Tennyson; and his brothers, Gerald of Drogheda, Ireland, and Washington, D.C., and David, of Bloomington, Minn. Dick’s wife, the former Martha Alexandra Ehlen, predeceased him in 2000, as did his son Peter, who died at age 19 following a severe allergic reaction in 1993. A later marriage, to Angela Engle, ended in divorce. He is also survived by Gail Nowasky, a companion and dear friend. They enjoyed playing golf and singing together and they were of great comfort to each other.Dick will always be remembered as a loving father, husband, brother and friend to many. His son Matthew and daughter Anne are comforted to be bringing their father home to be laid to rest in Salisbury alongside his wife, Martha, and son Peter. He loved the Northwest Corner of Connecticut and spoke often in his final months of many wonderful memories.A funeral service will be held on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 11a.m. at St. Mary’s Church in Lakeville.Arrangements are under the care of the Newkirk-Palmer Funeral Home in North Canaan.
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Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I was a library kid. I walked to the library after school,” she said.
For Sher, the library is as much about the people as it about the books.
“Part of the job I love so much is that running the library is such a community,” she said.
She treasures the relationships she has built, whether recommending books, celebrating accomplishments or helping patrons through difficult times.
“I am thankful that our community is so supportive of the library, unlike what is happening in some other places where librarians are villainized,” Sher said.
Sher takes pride in the Hunt Library’s reputation for being “open and welcoming to everyone. People come in and see things and get pulled into things they weren’t expecting. Our library is seen as a positive force.”
Sher came to Falls Village after being awarded a fellowship at Adamah Farm, then a program of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center. She worked at pickling, in the greenhouse and later in the development office. She also worked as a nanny.
At the same time, “I was in the library all the time,” she recalled. “I’m a voracious reader. The library is where I met a lot of my first friends in Falls Village.”
She became assistant librarian at Hunt and worked in that position for almost a decade before becoming the executive director four years ago.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino
Sher met her husband, Adam, while working at Adamah. They had their wedding there in 2012. He now emcees many events which she co-organizes with the Falls Village Recreation Commission.
Sher and her family live near the library.
“It’s an easy commute,” she said with a smile. “My kids run back and forth. I can go home to walk the dog if I need to.”
“My kids have grown up here.” Her oldest son, Eli, “loves volunteering. He helps with Augustfest and often helps set up chairs for ArtWall gatherings.” Her younger son, Noah, is often at events and was eager to taste cookies at last year’s holiday cookie swap.
When she is not at the library, Sher likes to hike with her family. Bella, their Portuguese water dog, often accompanies them.
Sher enjoys seeking out people to offer events at the library.
“I do a lot of different community programming. It is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
Augustfest, featuring food, music and an auction, is the library’s biggest fundraiser.
“This summer we had a record 152 attendees, which was pretty incredible.”
Yonah Sadeh, a filmmaker from Falls Village, inaugurated the VideoWall this year, Sher explained.
“I’ve known Yonah since he was two. It’s wonderful to work with him as an adult.”
The VideoWall complements the library’s ArtWall, which showcases a new artist each month. Sher praised the ArtWall committee for its work and highlighted December’s popular “12x12 Show,” featuring works by local artists, each measuring 12 by 12 inches and priced at $150.
Sher added that some of the artists who exhibit at the ArtWall offer workshops to students at Kellogg School, next door to the library. In September, artist Danielle Mailer worked with the children. Vincent Inconiglios taught a class last November.
Being next to the school, said Sher, is a great advantage.
“Kids are coming after school, to see friends, work on projects, find a great book. Kids that love the library end up using the library as grownups.”
This past year, in partnership with Adamah, the library and school created a garden, with excess produce made available at The Center on Main.
This year is Sher’s second year participating in the Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia with James King, director of the library at Salisbury School. The Troutbeck Symposium is “a gathering of a year of student historical inquiry across the region” in which students “uncover stories that have been overlooked, forgotten, or never recorded.”
Last year, Sher and King began a project with a group of students researching Irish immigrants in Falls Village, exploring ancestry and creating small magazines about their findings.
They continued this year, visiting St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery on Dublin Road, cleaning seven gravestones and even righting one with the help of stonemason and gravestone restoration expert Karl Munson. Paul Kozeazny, a representative of the Catholic archdiocese, helped secure access to the site.
A film documenting their activities will be shown at the symposium in spring 2027.
A full schedule of programs and events, ranging from tech help to ceramic mug-making, can be found on the library’s website.
Despite spending her days surrounded by books, and a busy schedule of programming, Sher still loves to settle in with a book at home.
For more information on library programs and events, visit huntlibrary.org
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Touré was born in northern Mali in 1981. His father, the renowned guitarist Ali Farka Touré, came from a family of soldiers and wanted his son to join the army. The younger Touré studied drums and the calabash and practiced guitar in secret. He earned his father’s blessing to pursue music shortly before Ali died in 2006, and they played two tracks together on Vieux’s debut album.
Touré is known for his deft, polyrhythmic playing, and his songs grow out of riffs that repeat and layer to hypnotic effect. He draws on rock, blues, Latin music and various African traditions. This distinctive blend builds on his father’s work adapting the sonic traditions of Mali’s arid north to the guitar.
Vieux’s album “Mon Pays” (“My Country,” 2013) honored Mali’s culture after Tuareg separatists and extremist groups seized the north in 2012. “Samba” (2017) was recorded before about 50 listeners in Woodstock, New York. In 2022 came “Les Racines” (“The Roots”), a return to his father’s desert blues, and “Ali,” on which he and the trio Khruangbin reworked eight of the elder Touré’s songs.
Touré leads the Ali Farka Touré Foundation, which focuses on cultural and educational work in Mali. Around the anniversary of Ali’s death, it holds a festival in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Bamako has been under blockade for much of the past year, besieged by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Against this backdrop, Touré continues to carry the music of Mali to audiences abroad.
At the Nov. 5 concert, Touré’s desert blues will share the bill with Gnawa, the music LanGus plays, which developed in Morocco among West Africans who were brought north across the desert as enslaved people. Gnawa is religious music traditionally performed at all-night healing ceremonies called lila, intended to carry participants into trance.
Samir LanGusProvided
LanGus was born and raised outside Agadir, Morocco, and began learning Gnawa from its masters at age 8. He plays the sintir, a three-stringed bass lute made of wood and camel skin. The player strikes a low string with the thumb to create a deep, resonant pulse. Iron castanets clatter over the sintir’s bass line, and vocalists trade call-and-response refrains.
LanGus infuses the tradition with jazz and improvisation. In New York, he founded the ensemble Innov Gnawa. His first solo album, “Gnawa Love,” came out in February.
Touré and LanGus’s Nov. 5 concert is one of the last public events at Race Brook Lodge, which is for sale and ended full-service operations at the end of 2025. The lodge’s final scheduled event, on Nov. 6, is an evening of Rumi’s poetry with translator and vocalist Haleh Liza Gafori, cellist Isabel Castellvi and ceremonial bard James Bird.
For tickets, visit rblodge.com.
James FitzGerald is a student at Yale Law School, where he focuses on ecological restoration and international environmental cooperation. He splits his time between Lakeville and New Haven.
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