Yesterday, Ellen and I went to Vernon Green, a retirement village in Vernon,VT, where our friend, Rev. Marcia Dorey, had just moved into a small apartment. I have known Marcia for decades: she was the pastor of the Wilmington and West Dover UCC churches for many years, and she and her late husband, Jack, were members of a class I taught on "Small Church Management" for Bangor Theological Seminary about 20 years ago. Ellen got to know Marcia pretty soon after Ellen and I met because I was fairly deeply involved in helping Marcia through a difficult time in her relations with the then-current pastor of the Wilmington Church (Marcia was still living in Wilmington as a former pastor - always a tricky situation, but especially so in this case). The Vermont Conference staff were also involved, which made it even more complicated. Ellen went to some of the meetings dealing with all of that. For a time, we met Marcia fairly regularly at Dot's Restaurant in Wilmington for lunch. But we haven't been able to do that for some time, and then we learned just a few days ago that Marcia was selling her house and moving into Vernon Green. Ellen baked her a nice apple pie as a sort of "house-warming" present. So we took the pie to her.
On our way down, I filled Ellen in on my connection with Vernon Green. About 30 years ago, I was teaching a course for Southern Vermont College titled "Portfolio Preparation for Life Experience Credit." Students with extensive work experience who had never completed a college degree took the course in order to get college credits for the learning they had acquired from life/work experience. This required a fairly rigorous process of analyzing their experience and identifying the skills, knowledge and subject matters they had become competent in. These were organized into subject areas and described - not unlike a course syllabus. Supervisors and others would "document" this learning by writing letters of recommendation. This would all go into a portfolio which would be read and assessed by faculty members in the appropriate fields, and credit awarded.
Well, an eighty-year old man named Raymond Beecroft signed up for the course. He had never gone to college, but boy, did he have a ton of experience! He had experience at a high level of responsibility in accounting, banking, church publishing, etc., and he had most recently been CEO of Vernon Green at the time of its inception and had overseen the building of its extensive campus. He was ultimately awarded close to three years of college credits - more than anyone else had ever been awarded at that time - and then took a few more courses and earned his B.A. from Southern Vermont College at about age 84! He was a very fine person and a joy to have in the class. Needless to say, he was very happy with the outcome.
When we got to Vernon Green, we had to go to the main office to find out Marcia's apt. # (it was 105). We met Brad Ellis, the current CEO (outside, masked and distanced!), and after getting the Apt. # I asked him about Ray Beecroft. He had known him (Ray, of course, passed away some time ago), and he graciously gave me a brochure which celebrates 100 years of Advent Christian Retirement Communities (that is the denomination that built Vernon Green), which features Ray Beecroft! So that was nice.
We found Marcia sitting on her front porch, resting from the rigors of moving. She was thrilled to get a pie. Her Apt #105 shares a porch with #104, and also sitting there was it's occupant, the Rev. Bill Monroe. And here is where the "small world department" kicks in. For years, Bill Monroe was pastor of an Advent Christian church in Friendship, ME. Two members of his congregation were Tony and Susan Campagna. I know them well, because Susan is the sister of Deborah McKean - and Phil and Deborah McKean are dear friends who have frequently been mentioned in these blog pages. Bill Monroe considers Susan and Tony good friends and had recently visited them in Friendship. Small world!
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