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Parsons Family Association Dedicates Bench

   On Saturday, July 28th, 2007, a damp and drizzly day, The Parsons Family
Association gathered on the back porch of the Parsons House on Bridge St.,
Northampton, MA. We dedicated the new bench installed there this year.
James E. Parsons, of Vestal, N.Y. led a prayer and then President Martha
Ethier of Greenfield, MA greeted us. The following are the comments of Past
President Dr. Kenneth Doran of Albany, N.Y., Past President Nancy
Armstrong of North Kingstown, R.I. and Historian Robert Heath of
Huntington, MA., concerning the first three members whose names are
inscribed on the bench. Which reads, "Dedicated for Outstanding Achievement
in Preserving the Parsons Family History".

JOSIAH WAITE PARSONS
November 6, 1905 – February 4, 1988

Comments by Dr. Kenneth Doran
   In studying the Genealogy of my revered Mother, Ruby Martin Parsons,
10th in line from Cornet Joseph, I discovered that on her Mother’s Meacham
side she was 11th in line from 1620 Mayflower passenger, Richard Warren.
After Richard Warren’s death in 1628, he was described by a Plymouth
Historian, Nathaniel Morton, as a "useful instrument" whom had borne a "deep
share in the first settlement of the Plantation of New Plymouth". In light of
today’s dedication of this Memorial Bench, I thought how appropriate it might
be to apply similar words of praise for Josiah Waite Parsons, Jr. who was our
Association Treasurer during the 1980’s. He was instrumental in the
development of two memorial projects still in evidence here on Bridge Street
where he and his wife Agnes resided at #131. The Memorial boulder at the
front doorsteps of this Parsons House, and the Parsons Memorial Monument
just East of here in the Bridge Street Cemetery. I was President of the
Association at the time Josiah spearheaded both of these projects. But I was in
New York State, and we were so fortunate that he was here in Northampton
where he lived his whole life, and was willing and able to devote the hours and
days necessary to scour the countryside for the perfect boulder, get it
transported to the site, and arrange with Gerald for the proper text for the
plaque to be attached and superintend the attachment of the plaque in readiness
for it’s installation in 1985.
   In like manner, as Gerald describes in his book The Parsons Family, p744,
Josiah conceived the idea in 1986 to erect a large monument to the early
Parsons buried in The Bridge Street Cemetery and his proposal was taken up
by the Association in 1991, three years after Josiah’s death.
I’m deeply grateful to our Historian, Bob Heath, for supplying biographical
information about Josiah on short notice, extracted from his Obituary.
Josiah Waite Parsons, Jr. was born November 6, 1905 in Northampton; he died
Feb. 4, 1988. He married Agnes Adams on June 29, 1919. Agnes was born
July 2, 1904 in Ballyweaney, Northern Ireland. They lived at #131 Bridge
Street for years. He belonged to the Masons, The Northampton Historical
Society, next door, where he worked for over 20 years as a volunteer, and the
First Church Congregational of which he was a Trustee and one of the few
remaining direct descendants of the founder of the Church. He was, also, a
Northampton Alderman and City Councilor in the 1940’s.
   Here in my estimation was a most "useful instrument" indeed – Josiah Waite
Parsons, Jr. and we should all salute his memory gratefully.

EARLE P. PARSONS
January 20, 1924 – October 22, 2002

Comments by Nancy Armstrong
   Five Minutes of Remembering Earle Proctor Parsons – It’s an absolute
honor to be asked by Martha Ethier, Earle’s daughter, to do so.
The first image of Earle that comes to mind is always those twinkling eyes, and
gentle smile. If one needs to condense a person’s life and meaning into one
word, I would choose the word heart. Yes indeed, his marvelous medical
research pigs did supply life-saving heart valves to many, one being a very good
friend of ours in Rhode Island. However, the heart he supplied the PFA has
also been life-saving. His love of this family and its contributions to society, its
goodness, its value, meant so much to him that he and a couple of his fellow
Parsonses, Gerald and Ken Doran could cajole the most reluctant to help
preserve PFA by serving in one capacity or another, myself included. I just
don’t want to let Earle down, now or ever.
   For a couple of years, the unheard of happened. Earle and Shirley were not
at the reunion. They were off traveling on well-earned vacations, apparently
comfortable that we could carry on.
   He and his beloved Shirley were here with us with his immediate family for
the PFA Reunion in 2002. We all felt honored to have them with us and
laughed as granddaughter Emily once again maintained her title as " the
youngest". Daughter Martha and her husband Jerry have worked so hard to
make so many of our reunions memorable.
   For many of us Earle comes to mind when we look at and appreciate the
Memorial Monument in the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton that was
erected and dedicated in 1991 to the memory of the early Parsons Settlers. As
the headstones of those settlers were becoming unreadable, the Memorial
Monument Committee, of which Earle was a member, was formed and they
raised money to make the monument possible.
   Earle died at the age of 78, October 2002. Excerpted from the Union-News
of Springfield, Mass, October 25, 2002, we learn that he was born in
Northampton, Mass to Earle and Marguerite (Proctor) Parsons on January 20,
1924. In his early years, he farmed in Northampton, later expanded the farm in
1950, raising hogs, sheep, grain and hay. He married the former Shirley
Underwood in 1963. He was a member of the First Congregational Church of
Hadley, member and past president of the Junior Vegetable Growers
Association, Hadley town committees, Hadley Men’s club, past Director of the
Farm Bureau Advisory Board, past president of the Hadley Farm Museum,
Mass Extension Service Board of Investments, Nonotuck Savings bank, and
past president of the Parsons Family Association. Besides his wife Shirley, he
leaves 2 sons, Earle M. Parsons (Chip) of Hadley, Dale E. Parsons of Phoenix,
AZ. 2 daughters Martha J. Ethier of Greenfield, Heather Perry of
Northampton, 1 brother Kenneth J. Parsons of Hadley, 1 sister Priscilla Finck
of Florence, 7 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews."
There are so many tangible and intangible remembrances of Earle. How
grateful we are to Laura Pisano for her efforts in making this bench become a
reality.
   It is so fitting that this bench, which offers a place of reflection and rest, be
dedicated to Earle, who will always be remembered as the eternal heart of PFA.
Thank you Earle. Thank you God for giving us Earle.

GERALD JAMES PARSONS, A.B., M/S.L.S.
June 30, 1924 – December 19, 2003

Comments by Robert Heath
   Gerald James Parsons was born June 30th, 1924 in the University Hospital
of the Good Shepherd in Syracuse, N.Y. to George and Valerie Wilson
Parsons. Gerald spent his childhood in the Syracuse N.Y. area and Graduated
from Clyde Central School as Valedictorian of his class on June 24,1942.
Gerald entered military service on March 10, 1943, and after much training and
a furlough he boarded the "Queen Mary" on July 23, 1944, in New York and
landed at Gurock, Scotland on the 28th. He went to France in January 1945
and then on to Belgium. He was credited with service in the Ardennes, Central
Europe and Rhineland Campaigns during World War Two. He returned home
on the Queen Mary, landing in New York and paraded with his unit down 5th
Avenue in the Victory Parade on January 12, 1946. He was discharged 6 days
later.
   Gerald entered Syracuse University in 1946 and received his B.A. degree,
Magna Cum Laude, in 1949. He received his Master of Science in Library
Science in 1950.
   In his early years Gerald studied the piano; however, his love for music
exceeded his natural talent and he then tried oil painting. However, his first love
was History and Genealogy. Gerald became interested in Genealogy at the age
of eleven, in 1936, as the result of a geography class assignment. His first
historical writhing was a paper in his senior year in high school entitled "History
of Clyde from 1722 to 1850", which was later published by the Clyde Herald in
1942 and later by the New York Historical Association.
   In 1950 he joined the staff of the Rochester Public Library. He later became
the head of the Education, Philosophy and Religion Division. He resigned this
position to join the staff of the Syracuse Public Library in 1958, as head of the
Local History and Genealogy Dept. This library later became the Onondaga
County Public Library in 1976.
   In September of 1955 Gerald was elected a Fellow of the American Society
of Genealogists, the highest honor one can achieve in the field of American
Genealogy. In 1984 Gerald published a volume on the descendants of Jonathon
Parsons, a Grandson of Cornet Joseph and Gerald’s ancestor. He has had
articles published in the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register,
The American Genealogist magazine of which he was a contributing editor, The
New York Genealogical and Historical Record and The Genealogical Magazine
of New Jersey. He also was Book Review Editor of "Tree Talks", the journal
of the Central New York Genealogical Society in Syracuse.
   In 1988 Shirley Opitz, who shared the position of Historian of the Parsons
Family Association with her now late Husband Albert, wrote Gerald asking if he
would consider compiling a new Genealogy of Cornet Joseph Parsons Family.
It was proposed by the Opitzes at the reunion in 1989 and was acted on by the
Directors in 1991 when James M. Parsons of Leeds was President. Gerald
agreed and The Association started collecting money for the purpose of
publishing the book. Work started in earnest, and with Gerald’s devotion and
the help of too many to mention, the book was published in 2002 and we have
sold nearly 300 copies since then.
   We are gathered together today to honor Gerald by putting his name on The
Parsons Bench before us. We will be eternally grateful to him for the devotion
to family and the expertise with which he carried out this effort. Because he
was a stickler for detail, the definition of a true Genealogist, we are fortunate to
have one of the finest Genealogies containing the first 6 generations of any
family.
   Personally, I had a hard time getting to know Gerald because of that
attention to detail, until I realized just how important detail is in Genealogy.
Then it was easy to know him and I would like to think we became friends.
He also was on the Committee that arraigned to have the New Parsons
Gravestone engraved and installed at The Bridge Street Cemetery.
He always had first and foremost in his mind the correct reporting of the
History of the Parsons Family.

Thank you, Gerald, for your devotion to family and all you have done for The
Parsons Family Association.