Milestones

Obituaries

• Nancy K. Hagstrom, 80, a devoted educator, horsewoman, entrepreneur, and beloved mother and grandmother, died Nov. 27, 2025, surrounded by the love of her family. Nancy was born on Dec. 6, 1944, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Eugene and Virginia (Sanders) Kurtz, and grew up alongside her brother, Ned. She graduated from Piqua High School in 1962. Nancy went on to attend Southern Methodist University and later graduated from Indiana University in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in education. On Aug. 21, 1971, Nancy married the love of her life, Geoffrey Hagstrom. Together, they built a life grounded in hard work, family, and service to others. A gifted and passionate teacher, Nancy began her career as a middle school English teacher in Indiana and later in Pennsylvania. She loved teaching very, very much and took great joy in helping her students find their voices, discover literature, and gain confidence in themselves. In 1980, Nancy and her family moved to Brattleboro, where she lived until 2019. There, she poured her heart into her horse farm, combining her love of animals and children. She ran a 4-H club and a therapeutic riding center, creating a safe, encouraging place where young people could grow, heal, and learn responsibility through caring for horses. Her passions were always children and animals, and she found countless ways to bring the two together. Nancy was also an entrepreneur and partial owner of two businesses: Newton Business in Brattleboro, and Interscape Commercial Environments in Hartford, Connecticut. She brought the same determination, creativity, and integrity to business that she brought to her classroom and her farm. Over the years, her work in business was recognized with awards including Small Business of the Year, Best Places to Work in Connecticut, and a Family Business Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of her happiest times were spent at Spofford Lake, gathered with family and friends. Long summer days by the water, shared meals, and laughter with her extended family were among her most cherished memories. Nancy is lovingly remembered by her husband Jeff and beloved dog Bailey; three children: Dr. Nathan Hagstrom (Sheila), Julia Kilelee (Kevin), and Joshua Hagstrom (Alla); grandchildren Sam (Ericka), Nate (Brooke), Kelsea, Ben, Sara, Mairi, Harper, and Hunter; great-grandchildren Caleb, Kleay, Caden, Payton, and Ellie; and a great-great-grandchild, Taytum. She also leaves behind many dear friends and extended family who will miss her deeply. Her legacy lives on in the children she taught, the riders she encouraged, the animals she cared for, and the family she loved. She will be remembered for her kindness, her steady strength, her sense of humor, and the way she believed in the potential of children and the comfort that animals can bring. Memorial information: A memorial service was held Dec. 4 at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro. Donations to the Brattleboro Boys & Girls Club, 17 Flat St., Brattleboro, VT 05301; or LSO Equine Rescue (lsoequinerescue.com). To offer condolences, visit atamaniuk.com.

• Peter Lindenfeld, 100, of the Stonebridge community in Skillman, New Jersey, and of Princeton, New Jersey, where he resided for 65 years, died peacefully Nov. 21, 2025, while holding the hands of his children, Tom and Naomi. Born on March 10, 1925, in Vienna, Austria, Peter was the son of Bela and Elda (nee Lachs) Lindenfeld, who were Austrian physicians. Peter was a retired professor emeritus of physics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, having taught there for over 45 years. Peter and his parents were driven from Austria by the German annexation of March 1938. Shortly thereafter, he spent time at the Sanitorium des Enfants in Switzerland while recovering from tuberculosis, then went with his mother in England. They made their way to the Sooke Harbor House on Vancouver Island courtesy of a Canadian agricultural visa. Peter went to high school in Vancouver and to the University of British Columbia where he earned a B.S. and M.S. in engineering. Peter came to the United States to attend graduate school at Columbia University where he earned his doctorate in physics. While studying there, Peter lived at International House and became an observer of the lively New York City art scene of the early 1950s. At a John Cage “happening” at the Eighth Street Club, he met his future wife Lore Kadden, a textile artist and graduate of the avant garde Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Peter and Lore married May 31, 1953. Lore Lindenfeld died in 2010. Peter became a full professor at Rutgers University in 1966 and retired in 1999. His research focus was on solid state superconductivity. However, his real passion was for making physics accessible to nonphysics majors. Peter’s sabbaticals included time at Oxford in England, Tirupati in India, University of Paris d’Orsay, and at Kyoto University in Japan. He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers/AAPT. He received the 1988 Warren I. Sussman Award for Excellence in Teaching at Rutgers. In 1989, the American Association of Physics Teachers awarded him the Robert A. Millikan award for “notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics.” In 2001, Rutgers created an endowed chair in his name in Experimental Condensed-Matter Physics. In 2011. Rutgers University Press published Physics: The First Science, which Peter co-wrote with Suzanne White Brahmia. In the 1960s, Peter and Lore sent their children to the Quaker Farm and Wilderness Camps in Plymouth Union, Vermont. They fell in love with the area and bought a modest, three-room cottage in nearby Barnard, where they spent their summers walking along Bowman Road, visiting the Barnard General Store, and swimming in Silver Lake. Peter was informed and devoted to the traditions and culture of his Jewish faith, yet he also enjoyed a wider philosophical worldview. Peter was a social human being to the core, taking real interest in the lives of others, bringing his subtle and gentle sense of humor to the task, and keeping the focus on others. He supported Lore in her textile industry career and her later weaving and teaching career. He enthusiastically followed Tom’s career as a political consultant. He championed Naomi’s work as a potter and ceramics teacher. Peter was active in many social justice causes. He was a founding member of the Princeton Community Democratic Organization, and remained its secretary for decades. During the last 15 years, he shared his active life with his partner, Mary Clurman, who died this past August. He also quickly engaged in the Stonebridge community in the last two and a half years which celebrated him at his 100th birthday party this past March. Peter was a collector of pre-Columbian, Ashanti and other art, collected ancient Arabic and Judaic coins, was a music appreciator, and played recorder with the Princeton Recorder Society. Peter spoke German, French, English, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, and some Russian. Peter and Lore were so intrigued with Japanese culture that they visited there several times. He loved photography, mycology, book making, origami, officiating at weddings, and collecting and keeping in touch with his many friends. Peter is survived by his son Tom and his partner Becky Leise of Princeton, New Jersey, his daughter Naomi and her husband Michael Bosworth of Brattleboro, and his grandson Sam Lindenfeld of Brooklyn, New York. Peter’s memoir, A Century in the Making: A Hundred-Year Journey from Refugee to American, was just published by Flare Books. He worked on it until his final days. (website: PeterLindenfeld.com). Memorial information: A memorial service will be held Saturday, Jan. 17, at 10:30 a.m. in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, 50 Cherry Hill Rd. Donations to either the Princeton Community Democratic Organization (princetondempsit.wixsite.com) or Sustainable Princeton (sustainableprinceton.org) to honor his support for the Guyot Walk restoration project. To offer condolences, visit thekimblefuneralhome.com.

• Andrew David Mario, 33, beloved son of Michael and Heidi Mario of Brattleboro, was killed in action while engaged in combat operations in the Pokrovsky District, Donetsk Region of Ukraine on Dec. 3, 2025. At the time of his death, Andrew was serving as a medic with an international brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard. Andrew was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on Aug. 26, 1992. He attended the Guilford Central School, then Brattleboro Union High School for two years, completing his secondary education through Vermont Adult Learning. Although struggling throughout his life with ADHD, depression, and an at times tempestuous personality, with strongly held opinions he was never shy about sharing, Andrew was deeply compassionate, with a lively curiosity, especially concerning history and politics, a sly sense of humor and a fiery passion for social justice. His earliest employment was as a young teenager, volunteering at the Brattleboro Drop-In Center (now Groundworks). Later, he spent several winter months on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, living in a tent, in support of the Sioux Water Protectors, and subsequently a time in Ontario, traveling with a group raising awareness of the plight of missing and exploited First Nations women and girls. Other sojourns took him to Serbia and Finland, “WOOFing” on organic farms. After exploring several fields of employment, including restaurant work (notably at The Gleanery in Putney), and as a bicycle messenger in Philadelphia, he discovered an interest and aptitude for carpentry, obtaining and honing his skills on the job. For a time in 2020, he was a free-lance carpenter in California. Just hours before Marin County was quarantined and shut down due to the Covid pandemic, he loaded up his car and and drove cross-country home to Brattleboro. In 2022, he was employed for several months at the McMurdo American Scientific Research Station in Antarctica, and subsequently spent a year working in maintenance at the Scott-Amundsen Station at the South Pole, followed by three months hiking in New Zealand. After returning to Vermont on Christmas Eve 2024, Andrew lived and worked for a few months in Newfane, but was soon overcome with an urgent desire to make a meaningful contribution to the efforts of the Ukrainian people to retain their right of independence and self-determination. After extensive research, and contact with the Ukraine military, he made his decision to cast his lot with the courageous citizens of that beset nation, very much aware that he was putting his life at great risk. He departed our shores for the last time early this past June, visiting with friends in Lapland, Copenhagen, and Warsaw before going on to Kyiv. During initial training with the National Guard arm of the Ukraine military forces, he was selected for medic training with an elite Special Forces international brigade. His unit comrades were volunteers from multiple worldwide nations. In addition to his parents, Andrew leaves his brother, Thomas Stetson of Burlington; his sister, Catherine Stetson and her partner Edward Lapinski of Erving, Massachusetts; two nieces and a nephew, and aunts and uncles. He was predeceased by his grandparents, including his maternal grandfather Robert Schworm, with whom he shared a close bond, and who inspired his interest in the military and history, and his loving paternal grandmother Elizabeth Mario. Memorial information: A memorial gathering is planned for sometime in the spring at Trollhaugen Farm in Newfane, where he had formed many affectionate relationships. We are grateful for the kindness of Andrew’s friends who recognized and valued the great heart behind the “sound and the fury,” especially Ramsay and Laura, and the Gardner-Mahdavi family. Donations to World Central Kitchen, Doctors Without Borders, and the R.T. Weatherman Foundation are suggested.

• Jean Austin Medrek, 96, of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, formerly of Brattleboro. Died peacefully Oct. 26, 2025, with devoted family at her side. A beloved and longtime resident of East Longmeadow, she was born in Brattleboro May 14, 1929, the eldest child of Joseph and Grace (Johnson) Austin. Jean was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. John J. Medrek, a highly respected family physician, in 1989, and her youngest son, Timothy, in 2014. Jean graduated as valedictorian of St. Michael’s High School in Brattleboro in 1947 and went on to earn a degree in history from the University of Vermont in 1951. The summer after her graduation, she was selected by the Brattleboro Community Ambassador Program to represent her hometown in England. For two months, she lived with a family in Newcastle, immersing herself in the culture. Upon returning, Jean gave several presentations to the local clubs that had sponsored her, sharing her experiences abroad. She then spent three years in Washington, D.C., in the office of U.S. Senator George Aiken. It was during this time that she met her future husband on a blind date. Jack and Jean married in 1955 and ultimately settled in East Longmeadow, where they raised their six children and Jack established his practice as a family practitioner. Following Dr. Medrek’s passing, Jean became an active member of the Over the Hill Gang. With her adventurous spirit and warm, welcoming nature, she traveled extensively, forging lasting friendships while hiking, biking, and skiing across the United States and Europe.One of Jean’s most cherished legacies was her heartfelt tradition of taking each of her 14 grandchildren on an Elderhostel trip upon their 10th birthday. She encouraged them to choose their own destination, resulting in adventures that spanned the United States and Canada. These special trips became a source of pride for Jean and created lasting memories and treasured stories for both her and her grandchildren. Jean was very active in both St. Michael’s Church in East Longmeadow and the wider community. She served as a eucharistic minister for St. Michael’s, offering communion to the homebound. She began volunteering with Rachel’s Table in 1995 and continued until the program paused during the Covid pandemic, at which time she was recognized as their longest-serving volunteer. Her commitment to service extended to many other organizations, including Wesson Memorial Hospital, Springfield Technical Community College’s English as a Second Language program, the Science Museum, East Longmeadow Garden Club, and Springfield elementary schools. In addition, Jean served as president of the Hampden County Medical Society Auxiliary in the late 1970s. Jean also found time to enjoy hobbies such as painting and sketching, playing bridge, and was an avid reader. Jean is survived by five of her six children, as well as 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She is dearly missed by Tom (Kathy) Medrek of Windham, New Hampshire, Ted (Laurie) of Hampstead, New Hampshire, Paul (Rachel) of Somers, Connecticut, Barbara Patzwahl (David) of Canaan, New York, and Rosemary Whissel of Lakewood, Colorado. Jean leaves her two sisters, Elaine Meyer of Townshend and Carol Johnson of West Chesterfield, New Hampshire, as well as her brother Larry Austin (Judy) of Montpelier. The grandchildren include Katie Leas-Medrek (Mollye), Kevin Medrek, Michael Medrek (Stefanie), Brian Medrek (Mia), Jack Medrek, Ben Medrek, Sarah Patzwahl, Austin Patzwahl (Lindsay), Jessica Patzwahl (Mike (FI)), Renae Whissel, Joel Whissel, Jamison Medrek (Katie), Devin Medrek (Savannah (FI)), Emily Murray (Ryan), and great-grandchildren Charlie and Lucas Medrek. Memorial information: A funeral Mass was held at St. Michael’s Church in East Longmeadow, with burial at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Springfield. Donations to the Springfield Rescue Mission (springfieldrescuemission.org), Shriners Hospitals for Children (shrinerschildrens.org/en/locations/new-england), or St. Michael’s Church in East Longmeadow (stmichaelsel.org).

• Kevin Mark Struthers, 63, of West Brattleboro. Died peacefully Nov. 29, 2025, at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, New Hampshire, surrounded by his family. Kevin had a rare form of appendix cancer which he fought gallantly to the very end. A lifelong resident of Brattleboro, he was born Oct. 27, 1962, the son of the late David and Barbara (Bryant) Struthers. He was raised and educated in Brattleboro, graduating from Brattleboro Union High School with the Class of 1981. For the past nine years, Kevin served as building custodian at Putney Central School. Previously, he worked in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, becoming custodian at Guilford Elementary School in 1986 and later at Green Street School in 1989. He enjoyed his work mostly due to his love and affection for children, and likewise, the schoolchildren loved and respected him. He loved interacting with the pupils at all of the schools where he worked. Kevin will be remembered for his easygoing personality and spirit of friendship. He loved a good joke and had a wonderful sense of humor. Of his leisure time activities, he enjoyed golf, fishing, computer gaming and, most importantly, time spent with his family. He was a faithful and devoted husband and loving father and grandfather, as well as a friend to many. On July 25, 1992, in Guilford, he was married to Becky Sauders, who survives. Besides his wife of 33 years, he leaves his son, Matthew Struthers, of Brattleboro; a daughter, Chelsea Struthers, of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts; one brother, David Struthers (Elena), of Connecticut; and two sisters, Tammi Stockwell (Mark), of Florida, and Karen Rhodes (Randon), of Brattleboro. Additionally, he is survived by his four grandchildren, Olivia, Logan, Bella, and Grayson, and many nieces and nephews, and several cousins. Memorial information: A memorial gathering and celebration of his life will be held Sunday, Dec. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. at All Souls Church (West Village Meeting House), 29 South St., West Brattleboro. Donations to the Windham County Humane Society, P.O. Box 397, Brattleboro, VT  05302. To offer condolences, visit atamaniuk.com.

Services

• Graveside committal services with full military honors for William “Bill” Fleming will be conducted Saturday, Dec. 13, at 11 a.m. in Locust Ridge Cemetery. A memorial gathering in celebration of his life will follow the burial, to be held at the American Legion from noon to 4 p.m. Mr. Fleming, 80, of Brattleboro, died Nov.15, 2025, at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. To view his full obituary or offer condolences, visit atamaniuk.com.

This Milestones item was submitted to The Commons.