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In memory of

Earl Alan Waterman

Shutesbury, MA

March 28, 1943 - April 11, 2018

Mar 28, 1943 - Apr 11, 2018

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Earl Alan Waterman, 75, from Shutesbury Massachusetts, passed away on April 11th, 2018 after an extended battle with dementia. Earl was a man with modest desires and was most at peace working outside, being with family, serving the community, playing games, or retelling bad jokes.

Born on March 28th, 1943 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, he was the third of five sons born into the family of Asa and Leona Brousseau Waterman. He was always deeply rooted to the land; He decorated the home he built in Shutesbury with the flowers from his garden, heated it with wood he chopped on his land, and ate the peas he grew and chickens he raised. He would only name the chickens after they were in the freezer, “we are having Betty for dinner tonight,” he would say with a chuckle. In particular, Earl loved Dahlias, and took great delight in crossbreeding and naming new varieties which mixed red, purple, yellow and white flowers after his three boys. Upon retiring he took pride in his small business, the Roadtown Dahlia Patch, with its “six figure earnings … if you include the decimal point.”

Earl graduated from East Providence Rhode Island High School, UMass Amherst, and Westfield State College. He was a patient teacher, beginning his career in Philadelphia and Vergennes VT, and then as a special education teacher and coach for 35 years in Belchertown. He was always ready to show you how something worked, and although complicated by his increasing dementia, took great pride in mentoring a former student in his final years.

A loyal community citizen, he served on the town’s school board, assessors office, and was always ready help a neighbor cut down a tree. Earl was a former deacon at First Congregational Church in Amherst, represented the church in testimony to the US congress, and was a generous supporter of their soup kitchen “Not Bread Alone” where he would, without pretentiousness, join the homeless for lunch. Although not tuned in on the complexity of modernity, he had a profound appreciation for frugality, canned soup, and day old bread.

Earl was a lover of games and puzzles, and could often be found playing solitaire (even if you were the one actually playing), starting a softball game at a family reunion, putting together a puzzle, or playing his favorite - bridge. He proudly brought his children to duplicate bridge tournaments, and took mischievous pleasure in creating a bidding system so complicated that it was banned by his bridge club. Amazingly, even late into his illness he was able to play.

Earl is survived by his three sons: Daniel, his wife Amanda, and their three children Jack, Lucy, and William, Craig, his fiancé Kate Madden, and his son Elijah, and Jeremy, his wife Emily, and their two girls Sophie and Esme. He is also survived by his four brothers, Asa, Bob, Don and Bruce and their families, and his former wives Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Waters and Chris Waterman. A memorial service will be planned in Amherst Massachusetts, and please consider donations to “Not Bread Alone,” in lieu of any flowers.

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