The Association for Gravestone Studies

Forbes Award
Oakley Award

The Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award - 2007
was awarded at the AGS 2007 conference and annual meeting in
Nashua, New Hampshire
to

Gray Williams

who made an
Outstanding Contribution
to the Field of Gravestone Studies

Gray Williams, a past trustee of AGS and a freelance writer on subjects ranging from health to history, has spent much of the past twenty-five years researching early New England gravestones and stonecutters. He has written many articles published in Markers, Annual Journal of the Association of Gravestone Studies pertaining to the classic studies of the stonecutter's craft: “By Their Characters You Shall Know Them: Using Styles of Lettering to Identify Gravestone Carvers" (Markers XVII), “Solomon Brewer: A Connecticut Yankee in Westchester County” (Markers XI), “The Center Church Crypt: A Photographic Essay” (Markers IX), and “Md. By Thomas Gold’: The Gravestones of a New Haven Carver” (Markers V).

Gray has also served on numerous boards as a Trustee of the Westchester County Historical Society where he as written articles for The Westchester Historian such as “Milestone Carvers" and “John Zuricher, Stone Cutter: An Early Gravestone Carver Signs His Name”; an ex officio Director of the Friends of the Old Dutch Burying Ground, Sleepy Hollow, New York; and trustee of the New Castle Historical Society, where he also published an article entitled “Graveyards: Mute Recorders of the Town’s Old Families" in a Bicentennial History of the Town of New Castle, 1791-1991. In 2004 and 2005, he was New Castle Historical Society project manager of restorations at Tompkins Family Graveyard, Millwood, New York and Chappaqua Friends’ Meeting Graveyard, Chappaqua, New York.

For most of the past twenty years Gray has served on the AGS Board of Trustees, conducted workshops and led tours at AGS conferences, and has always been willing to lend his experience and wisdom to the support of AGS and its mission.

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Please join the AGS Board of Trustees in celebration of this
outstanding contribution to the field of gravestone studies.

The Oakley Certificate Of Merit - 2007

An Oakley Award was presented to Gaynell Stone, Ph.D. Gaynell served as an officer of AGS and wrote a number of grant requests during that time. She completed her doctoral dissertation “Spatial and Material Aspects of Culture: Ethnicity and Ideology in Long Island Gravestones, 1670-1800” in which she created a database of over 4,300 photographs of gravestones extant in the 1980s; and is still called upon when a gravestone is found abandoned. Dr. Stone has presented gravestone-related papers, provided conservation resources to various cemetery associations and is currently producing a documentary film, The Sugar Connection: Holland, Barbados, Shelter Island, based on the archaeology at Sylvester Manor – which includes dozens of gravestones and cemeteries in England as well as on Long Island as part of the material evidence of the Manorial Families.

***

An Oakley Award was presented to Linda K. Lewis. A member of AGS, Linda has documented and photographed the cemeteries of Johnson County Kansas. She then transcribes, edits and adds the information to a database called The Digital Cemetery Project; which has a complete index of all stones for 39 cemeteries in the Johnson County and surrounding area. Each cemetery has an alphabetical listing of all individuals by last name, first name, date of birth and or death if known. Also included is a history of when the cemetery was started, who owned it or whose property it was located on. In her studies, Linda has identified lost cemeteries, coordinated clean-ups, registered unmarked burial sites with the Kansas State Historical Society and has assisted with a cemetery study class for middle school students.

Please join the AGS Board of Trustees in celebration of these outstanding contributions to the field of gravestone studies.

The AGS Forbes Award

The Forbes Award is usually, presented annually by the AGS Board of Trustees to honor an individual, institution, or organization in recognition of exceptional service to the field of gravestone studies. The award is named for Harriette Merrifield Forbes of Worcester, Massachusetts, who photographed gravestones and studied their carvers in the early 1900s. In 1927 she published a book titled Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them.

The Forbes Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Association.

The presentation is usually made at the Awards Banquet during the Annual Conference. A reception precedes the banquet at which the recipient is the guest of honor. The President makes a presentation speech indicating why the person or organization was chosen and giving a summary of the work accomplished. A framed certificate is presented along with a photograph of Harriette Merrifield Forbes. The recipient usually gives an acceptance speech.

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Harriette Merrifield Forbes Recipients

1977 Daniel Farber
1978 Ernest Caufield
1979 Peter Benes
1980 None Given
1981 Allan Ludwig
1982 Jim Slater
1983 Hilda Fife
1984 Ann Parker & Avon Neal
1985 Jessie Lie Farber
1986 Louise Tallman
1987 Pamela & Frederick Burgess
1988 Laurel Gabel
1989 Betty Willsher
1990 Theodore Chase
1991 Lynette Strangstad
1992 Ralph Tucker
1993 Deborah Trask
1994 Barbara Rotundo
1995 Dillon R. Dorrell, Sr.
1996 Historic Burial Ground Initiative, Boston, Mass.
1997 Vincent F. Luti
1998 Rosalee F. Oakley, Richard E. Meyer
1999 No award given
2000 James Deetz, Warren Roberts (posthumously), Edwin Dethlefsen (posthumously)
2001 Mary-Ellen Jones, M. Ruth Little
2002 John Sterling
2003 James Blachowicz
2004 Helen Sclair
2005 Terry Jordan (posthumously)
2006 The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training
2007 Gray Williams

The Oakley Certificate of Merit

The Oakley Certificate of Merit is presented periodically by the AGS Board of Trustees to individuals and groups that have helped to advance the mission of the Association. Named for long-time members Rosalee and Fred Oakley, the Certificate of Merit is designed to honor those whose work in the field of gravestone studies that is worthy of recognition by AGS. The award consists of a certificate, presented by the Board of Trustees, as well as a gift of a book to the honoree's local library, in their name on behalf of AGS. Whenever possible the award presentation will be made by a local AGS member. Each year's recipients will have their names printed in the conference program book and annual report. In addition they will be acknowledged at a reception held in their honor at the conference.

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1997 Fred & Rosalee Oakley
1998 Fred Fredette, Friends of Center Cemetery
1999 Harriet Ryan & Phyllis Lohrum, Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery
2000 John O'Brien, Mary Reilly-McNellan, James A. Smith, Henry "Red" Sutowski,
Arthur and Frances Hyde, Charles Marchant
2001 Nick Crepeault, Alicia Paresi
2002 Juliana Fuchs, Penny Lambeth, Bonaventure Historical Society
2003 Melissa Fleming, Rebecca Gorman, Betty Myers
2004 Emma Dragon, Adopt-A-Plot (Hampden, Mass.), Robert Carlson, Craig Dolder,
Norman Saul
2005 None given
2006 Historic Richmond Foundation, Fred Burdick, Kimberly Kenney, Brandon Kenyon, Jennifer Cerasuolo, Bob Posson, Olde Historical Burial Ground Joint Committee of the First Presbyterian Church
2007 Gaynell Stone, Ph.D., Linda K. Lewis

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