Natural Democracy

 

 

Bill Page

October 5, 1921 to August 27, 2012 (90 years old when he died)

(Edited for clarity, spelling, and grammar by Cal Page)

 

Obituary

 

He will be interred with his parents and several generations of Pages at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

 

He married his Belmont High classmate Janet Fish. Janet passed away on January 20, 2008, with Bill and two sons at her side.  Her memorial service was at 1stParish, where Rev. David Pohl led the service.

 

Bill and Janet were active at 1st Parish from 1958 until his retirement in 1983.

 

They had five sons, all here today. They are Cal, Charlie, Nick (aka William Jr.), John, and Ted.  He taught them to live their lives in awe and compassion.  He would bring microscopes on our trips so we could look closely at lichen and patterns in rocks and leaves.

 

They have eleven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Bill is survived by his sister Natalie Ohlin and her husband Hans, a childhood friend of Bill's. (Both now passed as well.)

 

Bio by Ted and Nick Page

 

William's father died when he was five, and his mother raised him and his younger sister Natalie in Belmont, MA. He graduated from Belmont High School. At graduation, they lined up by height. Standing next to him in line was a tall beauty named Janet, who became his wife of sixty-odd years.  

 

Bill Page earned a work scholarship to study engineering at Tufts. As part of his Navy training, he studied at Harvard and then served in the Pacific, returning as a different person committed to world peace.  Bill received a master's in engineering from MIT and worked at the Brookhaven Nuclear research facility on Long Island.  But his vision of the future was different from theirs, and he moved back to Boston, working first at Grace Chemical, where he hired Itzak Bentov, a brilliant Israeli scientist and inventor, and Roko Yasui, who became a close friend.  When Edwin Land formed Polaroid Corporation in 1950, Bill joined and eventually became Director of Corporate Planning.  He guided the creation of their popular instant cameras and worked to get them introduced into education. As just one example of his work there, he taught city children to use the cameras to visualize their conception of peace and the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Bill founded Tree Growers, Inc., a timber company, in the 1960s with his good friend Brownie Parker. On one level, the company maintained forests and sold timber. Its primary purpose was to preserve thousands of acres of pristine woodlands, which, thanks to Bill and his colleagues, are enjoyed by outdoors people today. Bill volunteered with Boy Scouts, who met at 1st Parish, guiding his sons through the program, including Eagle Scout Charlie Page.

 

Bill was an active town meeting member in Lexington for over thirty years, founding the Committee on Aging and serving on many other committees.

 

After retiring from Polaroid, Bill and Janet Page retired to Westmore, VT.  Janet's family had been there since 1907.  But he was not content hiking the beautiful mountains and swimming in Lake Willoughby - although he loved these things very much.  Bill's voracious mind and yearning to change the world led him to volunteer his services to benefit all Vermonters. A student of E. O. Wilson and the study of evolutionary psychology, Bill convinced Joe Patrissi and John Perry of the Vermont State Corrections Department to learn more about human nature. This study led to the creation of a Restorative Justice System, the first of its kind in the United States. Based on a human behavioral trait called "reciprocal altruism," good things happen in return when we do good things.  Vermont colleague John Perry writes:

 

"The result (of working with Bill Page over 15 years) was the development of the Vermont Reparative Probation program, where panels of ordinary citizens meet with victims and offenders involved with less severe crime and work out a contract for the offender to make amends to the victim, and to assure completion of the agreement. Since 1995, the program has involved more than a thousand Vermont citizens as panel members and more than 16,000 offenders.  A vast study involving some 25,000 offenders by Gale Burford at the University of Vermont and Jack Humphrey at the University of New Hampshire found that offenders who participated in Reparative Probation were 23% less likely to recidivate than those treated in ordinary correctional programs."

 

The program went on to win a Ford Foundation Innovations in American Government award, be recognized by the National Institute of Justice, and catch on like wildfire nationwide. Restorative Justice programs are in operation across all 50 states, all provinces in Canada, and nations around the world.

 

Bill Page spent his last years in deepening dementia. His sons Nick and Ted would sing with him often, and he never forgot the old songs. 

 

Segue here to the song 'River'.  You could say, "His favorite folk song was Bill Staines' "River."  He requested it at his memorial service.

 

Instead of flowers, we ask those interested to donate to the Westmore Community Church. The good people at this church were very kind to my father in his last years, welcoming him on Sunday mornings and greeting him with a smile. You can send your donations to:

 

Westmore Community Church

27 Hinton Hill Rd.

Orleans, VT 05860