Damon M. Stetson

1915 - 2010

Damon Mitchell Stetson, whose journalism career began in the "Get me Rewrite" era of the 1930s, ran to the age of computer technology and included 31 years at the New York Times, died Tuesday, June 1, in Woodstock.
He was 94 when he lost his fight with Alzheimer's disease.
Damon resided in Vermont for three years, but he had been making trips to the state since the late 1960s when his daughter, Nancy Stetson Remsen, and then his son, David Stetson, went to Middlebury College. His son remained and raised his family in the state and his daughter and her family moved to Vermont in 1995.
Damon was born Aug. 1, 1915, in Hanover, Mass., the only son of the town clerk, Bernard Stetson, and town librarian, Marion Mitchell Stetson. He followed his mother's educational footsteps to Bates College in Lewiston, ME, where he ran cross country and track, played hockey on an outdoor rink, majored in English and graduated magna cum laude in 1936. He received a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1937 and got right to work as a local reporter for the Newark Evening News.
Like so many of his generation, his career and life were interrupted by World War II. He enlisted in the Navy in early 1942, served first as an investigator for naval intelligence and then wrote training books on aircraft engines and airplane structures. He switched to air combat intelligence after requesting sea duty and served in the Pacific Theater with Fighting Squadron 47 aboard the USS Bataan from May 1944 through Oct. 1945. He received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious performance of air combat intelligence duties.
In 1946, Damon returned to civilian life, New York City and the Newark Evening News. He lived at the Midston House in Manhattan, a residential hotel and hub for a crowd of young professionals. Among them was Shirley Parker O'Grady, a young war widow from California who had come East to start a new life. Damon and Shirley married on May 7, 1949. The couple moved to Morristown, N.J. where their children were born.
In 1953, Damon joined the New York Times where he would spend the rest of his reporting career. From 1954-1963, he was the Times' correspondent in Detroit, covering everything: the unveiling of new car models, autoworker strikes, the tulip business in Holland, Mich. and John F. Kennedy's campaign forays through the Midwest leading up to his election as president in 1960. When he returned to New York, his assignment was labor and included coverage of national labor leaders and the tense confrontations in New York between public sector unions and their government managers. He stayed on the beat until age 69, retiring in 1984.
A feature story on people who made radical career changes led him to write a book, Starting Over, published in 1971.
Reporting wasn't a 9-5 job, but Damon found time to build backyard skating rinks, offer tennis instruction and introduce his kids to skiing. There were camping trips to Yellowstone National Park and Maine and Julys spent at a beloved cottage on Nantucket Island. It was at this grey-shingled cottage that Damon indulged his passion for puttering. He endlessly scraped and painted the white trim, pulled weeds and tended the tiny lawn.
In retirement, Damon and Shirley left Verona, N.J. for Cape Elizabeth, ME, where they lived for 24 years. From their condominium it was an easy drive north to Bates College, and Damon traveled the road often for trustee meetings, football and basketball games and visits with his oldest grandson while he was in school there. In 2007, Damon and Shirley moved to Vermont to be closer to family as Alzheimers eroded his health.
Damon is survived by Shirley, of Woodstock, his wife of 61 years; daughter, Nancy, and her husband, Ken, of Bolton; son, David of Sconset, Mass.; former and forever daughter-in-law, Wanda Stetson and her partner John Davis of Woodstock; grandson, Colby Stetson of Jackson Hole, Wyo.; granddaughter, Chelsea Stetson of Burlington; grandson, Erik Remsen, and his wife, Jennifer Kravitz, of Shoreham; and grandson, Karl Remsen and his wife, Martha, of Leadville, Colo.
The family celebrates Damon's life on Saturday, June 5, with a small gathering of friends at Woodstock Terrace where he lived. He will be buried in the town cemetery in Hanover, Mass.