There are few people who have viewed Hampton for as many years and through so many different lenses as the Gazette’s 2007 Citizen of the Year, Warren Stone. From a small farm on Main Street, through Town Hall as an elected official, as the proprietor of a seasonal business to voluntarily maintaining the town’s treasures, the Fletcher Memorial Library, Trail Wood, the Burnham-Hibbard House, and beyond, Warren’s stewardship of Hampton has been steady, as has his modest kind, soft spoken presence here.

                  -The Hampton Gazette, March, 2007

Warren passed away on July 15, 2010; his commitment to the town did not lessen in these last, final years of his life. Of course, in true Warren fashion, he wanted his death to go as unnoticed as his numerous kind deeds. But on August 12th, neighbors gathered at the Hampton Community Center to remember him.

Generous, modest, patient, dependable, humble, and extraordinarily responsible, a man of few words, with a subtle sense of humor and a love of stories and history, an unparalleled respect for nature and a keen knowledge of the environment and wildlife, and, above all, an insistence on remaining anonymous in his volunteerism -- these were the common threads throughout the testimonials of his life.

Alison Davis reached the farthest into the past sharing stories of Warren’s family. His father, Harold, contributed many entries in Alison’s Hampton Remembers, humorous tales of chipping away ice to swim in Bigelow Pond in the winter, of bringing his bride, Hazel, from New Jersey to Hampton in the sidecar of his 1923 motorcycle. Harold was a character, walking along the village in his overalls and straw hat, and Hazel, sitting on her porch with a basket of whatever was grown in their garden, was a town matriarch, and together they raised one of Hampton’s finest citizens.

The Stones were the original “green” family, living almost entirely off their land, raising vegetables, fruits, goats, cows, chickens, and geese. During the Depression, their village farm became “The Connecticut Yankee Tourist Home”, a boarding house for tourists and for schoolteachers. Maybe that’s why Warren always secretly left baskets for the teachers every May 1st, as Peg Hoffman recollected, and maybe that old-fashioned tradition was the beginning of all those anonymous kindnesses. Peg and Warren attended the Center School together as children, and as adults, worked together at a bank in town. Of his several stellar traits, what Peg remembered most of all was how fair Warren always was.  

Bill Hastings also spoke of the special relationship they shared as children, when Bill’s family summered in Hampton, and as adults during the Korean War, when a coincidental meeting resulted in Warren funding a vacation for Bill on his furlough. Bill summarized the many examples of Warren’s legendary generosity with the question, “Could you ever find a friend like that?” 

Sue Hochstetter shared that Warren was an integral part of her entire life as well. She also spoke of Warren’s involvement with the Historical Society, which he helped to spruce up seasonally, mowing the lawn, raking the leaves, decorating for Christmas. He also donated items to the museum, hooked rugs, pictures, keepsakes special to Hampton.

There were few organizations that didn’t reap the benefits of Warren’s charity. Fred Curry started the tribute asserting that there wasn’t an organization in town that Warren hadn’t touched, and the speakers proved his point.

Jim Ryan spoke on behalf of Fletcher Memorial Library, which Warren annually and anonymously decorated for Christmas. Early in December, Jim said, evergreen wreathes would just appear across the porch.

Warren was also dedicated to the preservation of Trail Wood. Wendy Davis recalled times when, during the night and under the cover of darkness, Warren repaired terraces and monuments there. To counter Frost’s “something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down”, there was Warren, the someone who mysteriously loved and rebuilt it.

Gay Wagner noted that when the “2^nd Century Fund” was started to restore the grange hall, prior to receiving the grant monies that funded the project, Warren’s was the first check submitted, and the largest single donation for refurbishing the Little River Grange, where Warren was a member, into the Hampton Community Center. 

Warren was also very active with the Seniors Club, whose membership enjoyed Warren’s stories of long ago, “of home life, and family life,” Sylvia Curry said. “We enjoyed Warren tremendously, too”.

Warren was a member of the Cemetery Association, a patron of the Hampton Gazette, and a founding member of the Hampton Fire Department when, at the age of four, he became the firemen’s mascot.  

Morris Burr and Peggy Fox remembered working with Warren at Town Hall, where Warren served as Treasurer for many years. “He was always a gentleman,” Peggy said, “with never an unkind word for anyone.”

Tom Gaines, capturing the essence of the repeated description, “a man of few words”, recalled a Meet the Candidates event when Warren stood up at his appointed time, said, “This is not a policy making office so you don’t have to worry about anything I’ll decide”, and sat down.

“That was quite a speech for him,” said Wesley Wilcox, who referred to Warren as “a second father.”  

Along with townsfolk, there were representatives from other local organizations: from the Card Home, where Warren recently resigned from service on the Board of Directors with a check to repair the staircase; and from Joshua’s Trust, who announced that Warren placed an easement on his land.

There was much reminiscing over Pine Acres Tree Farm. Warren’s home bore the magical sign: “This is the house that Christmas trees built”.  The property will always have a special place in our hearts, as we remember, in the most nostalgic of all seasons, searching in the snow for the crowning glory of our Christmas celebrations.  Fred Curry, whose son, Tom, operated the business after Warren retired, spoke of Warren’s meticulous care of the trees and the property. Wayne and Marcia Kilpatrick, who recently walked the land, echoed the description.

When I interviewed Warren for the 2007 article, it was the first time I saw the property since selecting Christmas trees there, and I was so impressed. It’s so natural, yet I know from experience the practiced eye that designed the landscape. Warren cleared precisely the space to provide sweeping vistas of fields and forest, and left precisely the right trees, not just aesthetically, with varying forms, textures, and colors, but those that would ensure a paradise for birds.

I’ve included the excerpts that introduced and ended the Citizen of the Year tribute, beginning with Warren’s generosity to the town, and closing with his generosity to nature. In the earlier article, Wendy Davis was quoted as saying, “The town lives because of able, knowledgeable, caring people like Warren Stone.” It’s true; with Warren’s passing, there’s the passing of an era, a gentler, humbler era. Yet the protection of the property and its provisions for wildlife is permanent, and it is this legacy that will live long after we’re all gone:

Colorful berries, scattered seed, nesting pines, sheltering stone…Blue jays, turkeys, snowbirds, crows, cardinals appreciate Warren’s anonymous generosity, too.