Town mourns Paul Putnam

The last time people in Springfield saw Paul Putnam, he was putting U.S. Rep. Peter Welch through his paces last Monday, asking the congressman exactly what he was doing to help Vermont's struggling dairy farmers.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100512/NEWS02/5120361                   # # # # Town mourns Paul Putnam  •  Rutland Herald  •  By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: May 12, 2010  •  SPRINGFIELD – The last time people in Springfield saw Paul Putnam, he was putting U.S. Rep. Peter Welch through his paces last Monday, asking the congressman exactly what he was doing to help Vermont's struggling dairy farmers.  •  The next day, Putnam, who retired to his hometown after a career as a top-level official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, headed to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, N.H., where he had gone for a routine heart procedure last Tuesday.  •  Shortly after the procedure, Putnam, 79, suffered a heart attack, and he died Saturday evening at the hospital.  • Putnam, a former chairman of the Springfield Select Board and a man who devoted himself to his hometown in his retirement years, was remembered with great fondness and his passing with great sadness Tuesday by the people he worked with since he moved back to Springfield about 20 years ago.  •  Town Manager Robert Forguites saw Putnam at the Rotary Club where Welch was speaking, and knew he was headed up to Lebanon for a heart test last Tuesday.  •  "I heard Tuesday night there was a problem. On Wednesday night, Don Gurney called, saying they were trying to stabilize him and do some surgery," Forguites said Tuesday, referring to Putnam's close friend.  •  Putnam's son, Ty Putnam, a trauma surgeon who once worked at Springfield Hospital, drove up from Virginia to supervise his father's care, Gurney said. His son was making arrangements to have him transferred to the Cleveland Clinic for heart surgery when he died.  •  Gurney and Putnam were both members of the Class of 1948 at Springfield High School, but Gurney said they weren't friends then.  •  Putnam was vice president of his class, and active on the school's championship football team, Gurney said, while he was taking the machining co-op course.  •  But when Putnam returned to Springfield, he sought out his former classmate, now a successful businessman and community leader and asked him how he could get involved.  •  "I told him to just get to work," recalled Gurney, who in recent months hosted a television show on SAPA-TV, "Talk of the Town."  •  Putnam ran for the Select Board in 1996 and served two terms, stepping down in 2002, Forguites said. He was active with the United Methodist Church in Springfield, Rotary International, Springfield On The Move, and the Edgar May Health and Recreation Center board.  •  "He was a gentleman. He was fine man. That's my description of him," Gurney said.  •  Putnam, a graduate of the University of Vermont who had a doctorate from Cornell University in agricultural science, was the retired director of the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center in Maryland, which at the time was the world's largest agricultural research center, and was active in the American Society of Animal Science and other scientific societies.  •  Putnam had grown up on a dairy farm on the Connecticut River Road, and when he returned to Springfield built a house on family land and had written several books about Vermont farm life. He had plans to establish a museum in Springfield dedicated to Vermont's agricultural history, Gurney said, and had collected old farm machinery as a start.  •  "Just last week, he was verbally sparring with Peter Welch at Rotary about agriculture. Paul held his own and he was poking and prodding about milk price supports," said Bob Flint, the executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp., who worked with Putnam on several boards.  •  Mary Helen Hawthorne said Putnam's death is "such a shock to me." Hawthorne said she worked closely with Putnam when she was with Springfield On The Move and Putnam served as treasurer of the downtown organization.  •  Hawthorne and Gurney said that Putnam was working on the committee planning the town's 250th birthday this summer, and was determined to have a mural painted on the north wall of the Ellis Block celebrating the town.  •  Putnam was frequently seen with his wife, Elsie, who drove him to his many meetings after he had cataract surgery, friends said. The couple, who had been married 54 years, had a son, three daughters and nine grandchildren.  •  Another organization that reaped Putnam's time was the Edgar May Health and Recreation Center, where he was a founding member of the center's board.  •  "Paul Putnam knew how to be a friend, a very good friend. He also was one of those special people who thought it was perfectly normal to serve your community in a whole variety of capacities. He did it on all cylinders and he did it with humility and grace," Edgar May said. "I wish we could replicate him over and over again," he said.  •  "He was so clearly in love with the town and genuinely committed to making it better, a constant thread until the end," Flint said.  •  "There was such a good-natured aspect to Paul, he made everybody comfortable, even when he had to talk about unpleasant things, because he could be stern too," Flint said.  •  "At the end of the day, he loved our town," he said.  •