It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Doug Henderson, the founding father of Land’s Sake, on July 14th at age 95. Doug grew up in Weston, became a career diplomat in the Foreign Service and returned to Weston in retirement where he was very active in town affairs. His two great loves were Land’s Sake and the Historical Society.
Doug, Martha Gogel, and Brian Donahue were the team that helped organize a vision of active land stewardship that would carry on the pioneering work of Bill McElwain at Green Power Farm. Working with a few others, they promoted farm, forest and conservation land management and founded Land’s Sake for that purpose. Doug served as president of Land’s Sake in its formative years, and was instrumental in starting the farm operation on the Case 40 Acre Field. Later, Doug was the driving force behind the merger of Green Power and Land’s Sake, giving Weston an integrated community farm and forest program. Doug is even responsible for our name–he said his grandmother’s favorite expression was “Land’s Sake!” Doug is survived by his wife Marion, his five children, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at St Peter’s Church in Weston on August 14th at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to Land’s Sake at 27 Crescent St or to the Weston Public Library, 87 School St.
