Comstock Small

WEST STOCKBRIDGE -- Comstock Small, 85, of Port Clyde, Maine, a former longtime resident of West Stockbridge, died Oct. 9 at Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Maine. He returned to Maine in May 2006 after 35 years in the Berkshires.

Mr. Small was a former member of the Stockbridge Conservation Commission and served on the Great Barrington Historical Society. He was a tireless volunteer for the River Walk project in Great Barrington.

Born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, on May 1, 1922, son of Deane B. and Jeanette Comstock Small, he graduated from Kimball Union Academy in Lebanon, N.H., and from Middlebury College and received master's degrees in geography from Syracuse University, in education from Harvard Graduate School of Education and in library science from Simmons College.

An Army veteran of World War II, he served in the Pacific theater from 1944 to 1946 as a photoreconnaissance and fighter pilot with the 5th Air Force, 82nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron.

Mr. Small was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study Italian land-use patterns from 1950 to 1951.

He taught English and geography at George Washington University and at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and worked as the librarian at State University of New York at Oneonta and at Simon's Rock College of Bard, now Bard College at Simon's Rock, before becoming a librarian for the Pittsfield Public Schools. He retired in 1988.

Mr. Small also volunteered at Hancock Shaker Village and at Chesterwood in Stockbridge. He raised a small flock of sheep for many years and later lent his pastures to neighbors and friends for their horses. He often rowed his Alden shell on the Housatonic River between Stockbridge and Glendale, collecting thousands of golf balls, which he donated to charity tournaments. He enjoyed travel, sailing, photography, skiing and camping.

He and his wife, the former Linda Horne, were married Aug. 21, 1964.

Besides his wife, he leaves two daughters, Elissa Small of Amherst and Antonia Small of Port Clyde.

A son, Derek Thomas Benson Small, died in infancy.

FUNERAL NOTICE --A memorial service for Comstock Small, who died Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007, will be held May 1, 2008, at the River Walk in Great Barrington. In honor of his many hours of devoted time working alongside friends on the River Walk, memorial contributions may be made to River Walk, P.O. Box 1018, Great Barrington, MA 01230. He took his daughters for a week of sail training aboard the HMS Rose in 1995, then joined his daughter, Antonia, for a week in Ireland aboard the Rose the following year. Comstock will be sorely missed by family and friends living far and wide. His family is grateful to the St George and Thomaston ambulance teams and to the staff at Pen Bay Medical Center for their extraordinary care of him during his last days.