Gretchen S. Taylor

MERIDEN - Gretchen S. Taylor, 70, died June 8, 2011, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, of complications of pulmonary disease with which she had been afflicted for several years.

She was born on Oct. 19, 1940, in Boston, to Herbert and Blanche (Spurr) Schnare, and grew up in Framingham Center, Mass. She attended Framingham Schools, the Walnut Hill School and was a 1962 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she was the first woman to graduate with a degree in economics.

In 1963, she married Stephen H. Taylor, a college classmate, and they first lived in the Portsmouth, N.H., area where she worked in the banking industry before moving to Meriden, where they resided for the past 46 years.

In 1970, she and her husband founded Taylor Farm, which continues today as a family-run commercial dairy, cheesemaking and maple enterprise.

Though she grew up in the suburbs outside Boston and at first was wary of rural ways, her love of animals and being part of a family venture cemented her commitment to farm life.

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IN HER LIFE: Among her greatest pleasures was watching her sons and grandchildren show their 4-H heifers at the Cornish Fair over the years.

A woman of many interests and talents, she particularly loved music, reading and gardening. She sang with the Meriden Congregational Church choir for more than 40 years, performed with the Meriden Players, served as a library trustee and tended extensive flower gardens around the farmstead.

In 1971, she and four friends founded the Plainfield Cooperative Preschool, which for 15 years provided kindergarten for children of the Plainfield-Meriden-Cornish area before the communities established public kindergartens. In 1982, she and her husband started publication of PlainFacts, the monthly community newsletter for Plainfield and Meriden, and she served 17 years as treasurer of the Meriden Village Water District.

She served two terms as a trustee of the University System of New Hampshire, was a director of the former Meriden Telephone Company and recently retired after a decade as a director of the Mascoma Savings Bank and the Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by three sons, James (Kelly), William (Elizabeth) and Robert (Lucinda) Taylor, all of Meriden; seven grandchildren, Douglas, Andrew, Matthew, Jeffrey, John, Benjamin and Olivia Taylor, all of Meriden; a sister, Natalie Dunn of Englewood, Fla.; cousins, nieces and a nephew.

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SERVICES: A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held at Meriden Congregational Church Saturday, Sept. 17, at 11 a.m.

Memorial donations may be made to Meriden Congregational Church Music Fund, c/o Richard Atkinson, Box 187, Meriden 03770.

Ricker Funeral Homes & Crematory of Lebanon is handling arrangements. For more information, go to rickerfuneralhome.com.